I folded my arms. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He held my gaze, unflinching. Classic Insider. But the pause before he spoke told me everything.
“I don’t trust you,” I said. “And this is why.”
Still no outward sign that Zenn was withholding information. But he was. He had to be.
“Should I say yes?” he asked, sidestepping my question.
I raised one shoulder in a shrug. “If you want. I don’t care.”
“Think how much I could do in Freedom as Director.”
It was exactly what I was thinking.
Zenn cast a glance toward the argument still raging in the war room. “Will it help Vi?”
“Vi doesn’t need your help,” I said. “She’s safe with me.” I said it to hurt him, and even cool-cat Zenn couldn’t hide the pain/fury/anguish fast enough. I saw it. I saw it all.
It hurt me to hurt him. We used to be best friends once, united in our zeal to take down the Association. I’d fought from the outside, and he’d crippled them from the inside. My barricades softened, just for a second, but it was enough.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“I would change so many things,” Zenn said. “Starting with you and Blaze.”
I cleared my throat, trying to scrape back my tears. I nodded.
Zenn copied me, and actually brushed his hand across his eyes.
“It’s your decision,” I said. “I’ll support it.” Then I returned to the war room, kissing Vi before I sat down.
I still didn’t trust Zenn. A few tears and a couple of nice words didn’t buy confidence.
“Zenn will choose,” I said, effectively ending the discussion/argument/shout-fest. “Thane, what else?”
“Everything should be set inside the city,” he said. “We’ve still got Starr Messenger and Trek Whiting who are Informant. I believe Gunner’s been receiving their reports.”
Gunn nodded. “When I’m gone, Saffediene’s been picking up the chats.”
“Yes,” Saffediene said. “But I’d like to request to be on the traveling team.”
“Gunn?” I asked.
“She can have my spot.” He looked down the hall. “I’d like to stay . . . . Starr likes to deal directly with me.”
“Right,” Zenn said, having rejoined the group. “I think Raine likes to deal directly with you.”
I laughed with everyone else. In response Gunner handed his dad’s journal to Zenn. “She does, actually. Can you be in charge of this?”
“When he goes into Freedom, I’ll take it,” I said.
Zenn fingered the leather-bound book, his eyes taking on a far-off quality. “
But I knew he’d go. Zenn wanted to matter. He always had—and what better way to matter than to hold an important government position? He’d definitely be going. It was just a matter of when.
Vi put her hand on Zenn’s arm, and my stomach flipped. I didn’t want her touching him, even if they were just friends.
“How’s the tech, Pace?” I asked to distract myself, but I found it impossible. Vi’s hand remained on Zenn’s arm, and I couldn’t look away.
“Coming along,” he said. “We got some good stuff in Freedom, and I’ve been tinkering. We’ll have what we need in a couple of weeks.”
“Which works out well with the traveling schedule,” Zenn said. “Last I checked, we still had six cities to visit.”
“Maybe seven,” Saffediene noted. “I don’t think all the objectives were completed in Lakehead.”
“True,” Gunner said. “The city was in lockdown. We managed to upload the software and start the false feeds, and that’s all. But those are the important things. The last objective came from the journal and doesn’t have to be complete in order to launch the attack on Freedom.”
“Will we have support in Lakehead?” I asked. “Will they send people?”
“Yes,” Zenn said, too loud. He and Gunn wouldn’t look at each other, or at me.
And there it was. The thing Zenn wanted to hide from me. No matter. I’d get it out of Gunn after Zenn left with Saffediene. They’d have another mission coming up soon, probably tonight.
“Next mission?” I asked.
“Cedar Hills,” Saffediene replied automatically. “Zenn and I leave in a couple of hours.”
“Fantastic,” I said, almost smiling. “Let’s go over assignments. Pace will run communication with all the cities we already have on board, letting them know our schedule. He’ll also be equipping us all with defensive tech.”
“You got it, bro,” Pace said.
“Zenn and Saffediene will finish visiting the cities and compile the travelogue. We’ll also need a list of supplies each city can contribute, and how many people they estimate sending.”
Saffediene nodded, typing something into her e-board. Zenn watched me, his expression unreadable.
“Gunn and Raine will be in charge of maintaining contact with Starr to stay updated with events inside Freedom. Oh, and Zenn, you know Mason Isaacs and have a cache. Can you contact him before you leave this afternoon?”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I couldn’t believe I’d
I surveyed my group. “Excellent. Adjourned.”
“Wait,” Thane said. He’d been silent so long, I was happy to have forgotten about him.
“What?” I snapped.
“I just received a chat from Van Hightower.”
Zenn
20.
“Impossible,” I said, too quietly for anyone to hear. If Thane had indeed received an e-comm from Director Hightower, the Director would have to be close-by.
Very close-by.
Way too close.
Instead of questioning Thane, Jag simply hit a button, which caused a strobing blue light to fill the cavern. He began issuing orders: “Pace, get all the tech. Tell Indy to help you. Vi, stay next to me, see what you can find, and don’t hold anything back.” He spun, his eyes wild, but his voice calm. “Saffediene, Zenn, go to Cedar Hills. Gunn, get Raine and start evacuations. Don’t leave any sensitive material lying around!”
People emerged from the doorways lining the war room, most of them in time to hear the end of Jag’s directive.
Panic hung in the air, but no one acted irrationally. Saffediene linked her arm through mine. “I need to go to my room first!” she shouted over the many footsteps and voices surrounding us.
“Let’s hurry,” I said, a vein of fear snaking through me. Director Hightower would love to get inside my head if he could. I’d been branded a traitor because of my Informant activity, but my file in the Association listed me as rehabilitatable. I hadn’t decided if I wanted to pretend to go through that. I didn’t know if I could pull off such an act convincingly.
In her room Saffediene shoved her extra clothes and the contents of one drawer into her backpack before declaring she was ready. She followed me to my room where I did the same, leaving everything but my clothes, a blanket, and four memory chips I’d taken from Freedom.
They contained all my fondest thoughts of Vi. Things from the Goodgrounds before we’d left. Lucid moments in Freedom. My father had also sent a chip—an old, out-of-date model compared to the tech in Freedom—filled
