You’re lost,
At least there are no Thinkers,
I woke when I hit the floor. I thrashed, my injured foot making contact with something hard. I’d kicked a person, and they cursed.
“Jag, wake up.”
I pushed into a sitting position to find Starr rubbing her kneecap. “Sorry,” I said. “I don’t wake up well.”
“Vi said as much.”
“Sorry,” I said again. I looked at Starr and found her bright yellow hair appeared freshly washed. “You’re looking good, Starr.”
Her eyes reminded me of my mother’s. Sharp and full of life. She didn’t miss anything.
“Thanks to Trek,” Starr said. “Thane’s been nursing me back to health too.”
“Is there anything that guy can’t do?” I asked.
A smile seeped across her mouth. “He’s got quite the temper.”
“Is that a problem?” I asked, folding my arms behind my head. “All the best guys have tempers.”
Starr laughed and turned to leave. “I’ll go get Vi.”
“Don’t bother,” I said. I could feel Vi’s pity coming through the walls. “She’s lurking in the hall.” Annoyance flashed through me. Vi got someone else to wake me up?
“You have freaky dreams,” Vi said, still out of sight.
I didn’t answer. I hated subjecting her to my nightmares, but surely she realized what she was, what she could do. She’d need to figure out a way to block my thoughts, my dreams, everything.
“I’m trying,” she said. “I’ve talked to Thane about it.”
“Nice,” I said in my most sarcastic tone. I didn’t want her talking to Thane about anything except maybe the weather or what to have for breakfast. Certainly not anything having to do with me.
“I’m not giving him specifics.” Vi finally appeared in the doorway. Starr hurried out of the room, skating her fingers along Vi’s shoulder as she went.
“It’s after noon,” Vi continued. “We’re leaving.”
“Northepointe?”
“That’s where you chose,” she said drily.
I stood up and brushed my hands on my dirty jeans. “Are we packed?”
She smirked. “We’re just waiting for our fearless leader.”
“Oh, shut up,” I said, threading my fingers through hers. “And kiss me.”
We left our headquarters in Castledale and flew west to Laurel’s last known location. Thane had instructed us to watch for markings on the ground, on buildings, anywhere. “Knowing her,” he’d said, “she’ll have taken her team somewhere secure and left us a message as to where.”
Starr spotted the black writing on the ground first. It looked like Laurel had burned the message in the field, and while I could read the letters, it made no sense to me.
E-D-N-A-R-G.
“Grande,” Thane said immediately.
She’d spelled it backward. “Grande is dangerously close to Freedom,” I said.
“She’s smart,” Thane said. “She’ll have her moles back up and running in no time.”
I consented and turned my board north. Director Kingston held no soft spot for the Resistance—in fact he was as ruthless as they came. Darke would never expect me to find refuge in Northepointe—which was exactly why I’d chosen it as our lay-low city.
That, and because of its location. See, Northepointe was way across the country from Freedom, and the flight would take two days. I needed time to sort through what steps to take next, and if Laurel could really get her underground message system running as fast as Thane claimed, I could operate the Resistance from Northepointe.
I’d just passed the last building in Castledale when Vi screamed. “Saffediene!”
I spun around as Vi streaked away from the group and disappeared.
I swore, Thane swore, and we both took off in the direction she’d gone.
I used Vi’s high emotion to track her. She was crouched next to Saffediene’s still form. Vi’s hands fluttered over Saffediene’s chest. When I landed next to her, she looked at me with wild eyes. “She needs help,” Vi said.
Saffediene wasn’t bleeding. No, her wounds were worse than that: techtricity burns. The flesh on her ankles oozed blood, and black patterns ran the length of her arms, legs, and torso. Her muscles twitched, her eyes blinked, but she didn’t move. I wasn’t sure how she’d survived.
Thane rummaged through his pack, producing meds and bandages. I did as he instructed, and we had Saffediene tethered to Thane’s board in under five minutes. He rode on Vi’s, and she stepped onto mine. We made a slow return to the group.
Finding Saffediene cast a somber mood on us, and we flew toward Northepointe in twos and threes, speaking only when necessary.
Mercifully, the sun stayed out all day, and we used the solar charge in our hoverboards. I hooked into a charge pack at night, and used the sunshine to recharge my board and the spare pack on the second day. By the time we saw the city limits of Northepointe, we were all slouched on our boards.
I flew sitting down, with Vi in front of me, her back pressed against my chest. We hadn’t spoken much, instead allowing a measure of peace to exist between us during the brief respite from Resistance efforts.
“We’re here,” I said, so everyone could hear me. Then I repeated it softly so only Vi could.
Darkness—and the early April chill of the far north—would blanket the land in only an hour. We touched down, taking cover in a shallow ravine two miles outside of Northepointe. I sat on the shore keeping watch while everyone else used the food-generating cube to order dinner.
Vi brought me a bowl of steaming soup and settled next to me. I’d swallowed the last mouthful of broth when a light on the outskirts of Northepointe flashed three times.
Three lights asked a question: Are you there?
Two flashes in response meant yes. And of course if I wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be able to signal, would I?
Shrimp, my contact in Northepointe, flashed every night on the hour from nine to midnight.
“Two flashes will let them know we’re here,” I instructed Vi. “Can you produce them? Two seconds apart, please.”
She fired off the appropriate response, and we settled in to wait for our escort into the city. Ten minutes later a squad of officers landed in front of us.
“You must be Jag Barque,” one of them said. “So Shrimp was telling the truth.” He glanced at his
