Abandon

the table while most of them went to catch up on sleep. I wanted to rest too, but first I needed to hear Mason Isaacs’s report.

They’d taken down Freedom. Set the Technology Rise on fire. Reduced Rise One to a skeleton of rafters. The Evolutionary Rise had toppled, and while the Medical Rise hadn’t, enough damage had been done to deem it structurally unsound.

“Ivory’s a genius,” Isaacs said. “She had this patch that dissolved walls. The whole wall! That’s how we gutted Rise One.”

“Nice,” I said.

“We should get her set up with Trek after she’s rested,” Thane said.

I nodded. “Continue.” Vi had returned from the infirmary, and I rubbed slow circles on her back as a way to distract myself from thoughts of Pace and what might have happened to him during the attack on Freedom.

Hightower hadn’t expected a second wave in Freedom. Elsewhere, yes. But not in his city. And certainly not with his clones guarding every major Rise and forming a humanoid perimeter of the city.

Hightower also hadn’t anticipated anyone else being able to control the clones, especially with Vi out of the picture. Isaacs had activated his team in Rise Twelve but hadn’t been able to gain access to the Technology Rise. Good thing his daughter was a genius with creating fake identification credentials.

They’d simply walked into the Evolutionary Rise with fake badges and wide-brimmed hats. There, Ivory had modified a piece of tech that would make the deaf clones hear.

They found Gunner in the Evolutionary Rise and busted him out. Since he was the only one with a voice, Gunner took out the clones, despite his weakened condition.

I shivered at the voice power and mental fortitude that must’ve required. People without voice talent didn’t understand the gravity of using it. Or the responsibility—and the guilt—that accompanied extreme verbal persuasion.

I made a mental note to talk to Gunner privately when he woke up. He’d need the emotional support, and he’d need it from me.

“Did you see my brother?” I couldn’t bring myself to say his name.

Isaacs studied me for a moment, his mouth turned down. “I’m sorry, Jag. Pace did not survive the experimentation. I think the only reason Gunner did is because of his adaptability to tech. That, or Van was keeping him alive because of his multiple talents.” He cleared this throat. “I’m sorry,” he repeated.

“And Indy?” Vi asked.

“No sign of her,” Isaacs reported. “The records show that Modification had not occurred before our attack, so . . .”

I would not give voice to my hope, though my mind screamed, She could still be alive!

“Once the clones were gone, the rest was easy,” Isaacs continued. “Van had no defense. We took out his Technology Rise, which forced the techtric barrier to fail, and then we hightailed it out of there.” He sat back in his chair, finished.

“Where’s Van?” Thane asked, as if he was the leader. Annoyance bolted through me, but I held my tongue.

“Dead,” Isaacs said. “He did not survive the collapse of Rise One.”

I wasn’t glad for anyone’s death—not even Van Hightower’s, as his daughter sat just down the hall, and someone would have to tell her. That someone would most likely be me.

“Our team had considerably less success,” I said.

“We lost Zenn,” Vi added from beside me, her eyes closed.

“We didn’t lose Zenn,” I argued. “He abandoned us.” The words made me ill. The four waffles I’d eaten and the half gallon of milk I’d drunk swam in my stomach. “He’s a traitor. He chose to go with Darke. He’s—”

“We lost Zenn,” Vi repeated. She put her hand on my leg under the table, and some of my anger drained out through her touch.

But I didn’t apologize. Zenn was a traitor.

Thane shot me a glance. I nodded for him to continue. Without Indy or Zenn, Thane might as well act as my second-in-command.

“Okay, so there are twenty-five of us,” Thane said. “We have two tasks: find Laurel and her team—and anyone else who might be out there in the city—and evacuate. I think our window of opportunity for both is shrinking. We need to be in the sky by nightfall.”

As much as I didn’t want to, I agreed. I said so, and then assigned everyone four hours of sleep—Thane included.

We’d face the city at noon.

Zenn 44.

It took thirty men three days to rid Freedom of the bodies. At my directive, they dug shallow graves in between the wall and the barrier. In the rubble of Rise One, I found Van Hightower’s body.

For some reason, I couldn’t look away from his face. Director Hightower looked peaceful, but for the gash across his neck. A strange sensation filled me from the toes up. Grief.

“So much death,” I murmured. The crew collected the body and took it to the gravesite along with the others. We filled the shallow troughs, covered them with dirt, and began the process of restoring the techtric barrier.

General Darke still hadn’t figured out how to do that. Little more than ash, the Technology Rise and all its capabilities were history. Rise One had been gutted. All medical records and scientific evidence had been lost. Runners had been sent to Grande and Arrow Falls to ask their Directors for any tech they could spare, but they hadn’t returned yet.

All transmissions had been silenced for the past three nights. I wondered when the people would shake off their brainwashed haze. How long before they’d realize they could leave their houses without an alarm going off or even receiving so much as a citation?

Even the cache system had failed. General Darke and I had to speak aloud to communicate. He’d found a pair of empty town houses with minimal damage, and we’d moved in next door to each other. Today the city’s remaining Thinkers were gathering for a meeting of the minds.

We sat in General Darke’s kitchen-converted-into-war-room, waiting for him to arrive. When he did, we stood as one, each of us lowering our chin slightly to acknowledge his superiority.

I used to dislike these little acts of subservience. Now they allowed me to breathe without worrying about who I was to report to and what I’d need to lie about. Now I didn’t live a lie. I simply lived.

The light coming in the skylight flickered. Lightning. A few minutes later, as General Darke spoke in his steady, controlling voice, rain pelted the glass.

I couldn’t help thinking of Saffediene caught out in the thunderstorm. My mind wandered, imagining her wet clothes clinging to her chilly skin. Her hair slicked off her forehead as she frantically searched for somewhere to ride out the storm.

Briefly, that somewhere had been my arms. My breath shuddered on the way in, and General Darke cast me a knowing look. I buried my emotions deep, deep.

I hadn’t been able to save Saffediene in Castledale, and I certainly couldn’t now. I didn’t know if she’d been rescued from the electro-net, or if she’d been captured. She had told me to work things out with my father, when really she meant I needed to figure out if functionality overrode freedom. Too bad this city—and this government —was no longer functioning.

I fingered the single-use teleporter ring in my pocket, part of me desperate to put it on.

Where I would go, I didn’t know. It didn’t matter.

Anywhere away from this conflict and dilemma would suffice.