“Storming Warden HQ and taking it by force? That’d be pretty much impossible,” a voice chimed in from the back of the van. “Unless you had the help of a high-ranking warden with detailed knowledge of how the Corps operates and how HQ is laid out.” Thorne struggled into a sitting position. “Oh, that’s right, you do.”
How long has she been awake? How much did she overhear?
“Though if you keep shooting me with knockout rounds and tying me up with – what are these? Seat belts? – I might have to reconsider my offer.”
“We didn’t ask for your help,” Titus growled.
“But you do need it.”
“Do we, though?” Kaiden asked. “We took the database despite your efforts to stop us. We unlocked it despite the entire Warden Corps hunting us.”
“That’s right. You did.” Thorne nodded. “And I’m still impressed. But imagine how much easier all of that would have been if, instead of working against one another, we’d worked together.” She drew out the last word. “I’m not your friend. Far from it, in fact. I get that. You don’t know me; I get that, too. But consider this. Kaiden, you want to clear your name, be free again. Zelda, you want to free your parents, want to expose the Party’s injustices. Titus, you want... well, I don’t exactly know, but it probably starts with not being labeled a terrorist and actively hunted by the Party, yeah?” She looked at each of them in turn. “You’ll get what you want – what you need – to carry on with your lives if that database gets dispersed to everyone.” She nodded as if to the world beyond the van. “All I’ve ever wanted was to protect people. To make sure something like the Great Test never happens again. But the Party has become something just as bad. I can’t let it continue like this. You don’t have to trust me, because dispersing that database to the masses gives you what you want and gives me what I want. Why do we need trust when we have mutual self-interest?”
Silence followed her words. Kaiden bit his lip.
She has a point. But, what? She just shows up after hunting us all this time and wants to switch sides? Wants to help us bring down the Party?
“I don’t buy it,” Kaiden said, shaking his head.
“I agree,” Zelda said, staring at Thorne as if she were a puzzle to solve. “We’re missing something here.”
Titus huffed. His mouth worked like he was chewing the inside of his cheek and contemplating something he didn’t much care for.
“Mutual self-interest is how a lot of things got done on King Street,” he finally said. “You don’t have to like or trust who you’re working with on a job as long as you both want the same thing.”
“She’s from the Party,” Kaiden said, gesturing toward her. “They killed Bernstein, the rebels, Zelda’s parents.”
“Arrested Mr. and Mrs. Yoshida,” Thorne corrected.
“Oh, great. Only arrested. Disappeared and taken to some unmarked prison. Much better.”
“Kaiden’s right,” Zelda said. “This database Bernstein compiled, it’s full of horror stories of what the Party has done. I haven’t even dug that deep into it and already I can see that.”
“And that sickens me,” Thorne said, a hint of a growl creeping into her voice. “I’ve dedicated most of my life to the Party.” She gritted her teeth, lips pulling into a scowl. “I fought through the Great Test, that hellacious war, all for the ideas of the Party. I watched people I knew, people I loved, die in that hell. And then when peace – blood-soaked, hard-won peace – was finally achieved, I gave years of my life to building the Party. I’ve spent the last decade protecting it. People I loved died to put the Party in power, and now, after all that, I find out it was all a lie? All to put power-hungry maniacs like Moran in charge? No. It requires an answer. It demands a response. You don’t understand the betrayal, the loss I feel right now.
“So, I get it. How could you possibly understand why I’m here? But I’m not asking you to understand my reasons and I’m not asking you to trust me. I’m asking you to let me help you, because right now, you’re the best way I see to right the greatest wrong in this world since the Test.”
Silence, then, for some time. Kaiden looked over to Zelda, then Titus. Both were frowning, and he didn’t blame them.
“I... uh, well,” he said, then stopped. Trusting Thorne felt wrong in every way. Working with her felt even worse. But was there a chance she was actually genuine? Had she really come to help?
A police siren sounded outside. Thorne looked toward the windshield, then cursed.
“That officer you stunned – you tied him up, right? Restrained him before you left so we’d have more time before he blew our cover?”
We were in a hurry...
“Well, we—” Kaiden began.
“Oh my god. You didn’t.” Thorne shook her head. “How have you three not been caught yet?” She cursed, then sucked in a deep breath. “You’re wanted fugitives. Hunted in-game and out. You’re living in a van that’s hardly even shielded. You’re low on food, you have no place to go, and you have barely enough money to even gas this thing up. Did I get all that right?”
Zelda reluctantly nodded.
“So let me help you.” Thorne struggled against the seat belts binding her, then sighed. “Hell, keep me tied up if you want, but we need to move, now.”
Another police siren outside, this one drawing nearer. Kaiden peered out a window and cursed.
“They’re headed this way.” And they were. At least four squad cars were zipping through the traffic lanes, lights flashing and sirens blaring. An armored SWAT vehicle followed them, heavily armed soldiers crouching in its open side door, guns in hand.
“I have reserve accounts, money I’ve tucked away under different names,” Thorne began,
