We’d been soaring over open water for fifteen minutes. Gunn rode in tight next to Saffediene, his face pinched with worry. I couldn’t decide if it was because of the thirty-foot drop, the mission, or the fact that Raine was in danger.
But hey, she knew the risks of running missions with the Resistance. He did too.
I switched my thoughts to the insane half plan we’d concocted. Our mission: Fly to Rise One, bust in, take Thane and Raine, and hightail it back to the ocean.
Not stellar. Especially considering the length of the flight, and the fact that just because the sky had settled into ashy evening didn’t mean there wouldn’t be EOs out in abundance.
“Here,” Vi said, her voice whipping away with the wind. “Jag! The tech is gone.”
I slowed my board to a stop, as did everyone else. All eyes rested on Vi.
Jag inhaled, exhaled, before launching the rock he’d brought with him. Gunner cringed, expecting it to hit the techtric barrier and spark into jets of light.
Instead, the rock arced through the air, landing in the water a good thirty feet away.
Jag urged his board forward, almost at a crawl. He didn’t fry to a crisp, much to my partial disappointment. The other half of me felt nothing but relief, especially when Vi glared at me with knowledge in her eyes.
“What?” I asked, though I knew exactly what.
We began the twenty-minute flight back to land, Vi still fondling the techtricity from the barrier. I watched the half smile form on her face, and it scared me. I didn’t know what Jag had said to her, but that smile—that was Vi’s way of sticking it to him.
I’d seen her direct it at her mother enough to know.
She caught me looking at her. “What?” she asked.
I shook my head even as I heard her think,
I wanted to fly closer and hug her. Tell her I’d never force her to do anything she didn’t want to. Prove to her that everything I’d done was for her and only her. Instead I turned my face toward Freedom and quelled the roiling in my gut.
Freedom suffocated me, stealing the oxygen in the air and turning it into cement. The city lay still, as if holding its breath—as if it knew we were coming.
“Enforcement Officers,” Saffediene said, pointing toward the Rises. Sure enough, the ultrawhite light of tech haloed the Officers as they swarmed through the streets.
More than fifty, maybe more than one hundred, all heading straight for us as we lapped over the last of the waves and flew above the sandy beach below.
“This is bad,” I said to no one in particular.
“Evasive maneuvers,” Jag called. “Find a spot to hide. Reconvene on the roof of Rise Twelve, midnight.”
Then he disappeared down the coast and into the inky night, leaving the rest of us to save ourselves.
I watched him go, crazy-mad, until I remembered that he’d charged me with protecting Vi. Neither one of us could be taken again. I couldn’t withstand the brainwashing—if I survived at all.
Now that Vi didn’t have Thane’s protective buffer, she absolutely couldn’t be caught. With her powers, Director Hightower would strip her of her identity, mold her into a clone of himself.
“Vi! This way!” I flew along the barrier on the southern edge of the city. To my right the orchards were just starting to bud, and the branches would provide decent cover for a few hours.
The Insiders had a hideout in the Western Blocks, and that would be our destination. I crouched low, satisfied when Vi copied me. We flew at treetop level, dodging the occasional rogue limb that grew higher than the others.
“We need to get to the Blocks,” I said.
If she didn’t know what that meant, she didn’t show it. One of the many things I loved about Vi. She was as unafraid as they come. Fiercely determined. And crazy-quick at improvising.
The faintest of sounds met my ears. I whipped around to find Saffediene and Gunner zooming behind us. Part of me rejoiced to see them and another part groaned at the large target the four of us created.
Shouts filled the air. The crackle of tasers followed, their super-hot light made it look like lightning had struck the orchard. I saw hoverboards with dark shapes flying in all directions.
“We’ve gotta get out of here!” I yelled to Gunn. “Block Twenty-Four!”
He waved his arm to show he heard me.
“Vi, let’s get down under cover,” I said. She nosed her board into the trees.
We flew.
Reaching the outer Blocks took forever. I thought for sure midnight had come and gone. At least we’d left behind the debilitating spark of the tasers.
We’d taken to the ground an hour earlier in an effort to save the energy in our boards. I rounded the corner and entered an alley between two buildings, sure I’d see the familiar sight of Block Twenty—which had a tunnel to Twenty-Four.
I didn’t. I swore under my breath, and Vi caught my eye. She couldn’t help me navigate the city; she’d spent the majority of her time in Freedom under the influence of Thane’s voice. Or mine. Or both.
Sometimes the guilt crippled me. Sadness pooled in my chest, right where my heart struggled to beat against it.
We both looked helplessly to Gunner, because he grew up in the Blocks and should be able to determine where we were. Saffediene kept her back to us, scoping out the possible danger behind us.
“Block Thirty,” Gunn said, peering down the alley. “We’re too far north.” He twisted back the way we came.
“No,” Saffediene said. “This is Twenty.”
Gunner’s face remained unreadable, except for the tiny muscle below his right eye, which twitched once. “I think it’s Thirty. See the water tower? Those were built in the Upper Blocks.”
Saffediene followed his pointed finger before pulling her sleeve down to cover her palm. She rubbed at something on the nearly pristine wall. The silver flaked off, revealing a patch of black underneath.
“Twenty,” she proclaimed, as if the faux surface explained it all.
“I don’t get it,” Vi said, voicing my thoughts exactly.
“Director Hightower was having the Blocks re-teched. They made it to the mid-twenties before Gunn and Jag escaped, and he pulled all his people into security.” She rubbed at the building again. “That black stuff is CoverAll. The Insiders marked all the Blocks concealing tunnels in increments of ten. It was my first mission.”
“It could still be Block Thirty, then,” Gunn argued.
“It could be, but it’s not,” Saffediene answered. She beamed at me, waiting for me to agree with her.
“How do you know?” I asked, hoping she was right. Then I wouldn’t have gotten us lost.
“Like I said, the re-teching didn’t get as high as Thirty. The buildings are black in the Upper Blocks, not silver. You’ll see when we come out at Twenty-Four.” She strode forward, her slight shoulders strong and sure, her blond braid bouncing along her back. “Can you disable this, Gunn? That silver stuff has recording capabilities.”
“Know-it-all,” Gunn muttered as he took up the rear position.
I didn’t care if Saffediene annoyed him. I just wanted to get out of range of the building’s recording capabilities. Our salvation came at the end of the alley, when Saffediene indicated the tunnel door.
Only darkness yawned behind it. I took a deep breath, hoping there’d be more oxygen inside this pit than in our Resistance hideout.
Hesitating, I reached for Vi’s hand and gripped it tightly in mine. Her returning squeeze led me to believe that she was just as unfond of dark, enclosed spaces as I was. Finally, common ground.
I breathed again, and then again, wishing for another way to reach Block Twenty-Four. If only we had a transporter ring or—
“Go!” Gunn hissed. “I think I see—” The rest of his words ground to a halt as a strobing light filled the alley, and the reflective surfaces of the newly teched buildings flashed with the word “FREEZE.”
