Dom ran a hand through his hair. He searched the room for Anya. She was standing close by, a book in her hand. Her eyes were on their discussion. On him.
He looked away from her, needing to find the strength to do this alone. ‘Max wanted this. Max wanted to find the Beyond.’
Charlie shook his head. ‘He wanted freedom and he got killed for his dream. We don’t even know if the place exists. Vanessa and I are not prepared to lead the youngsters into a battle, or some unknown place where anything could happen.’
‘But you think I am?’ That’s what this was about—his ability to lead. Or lack of. ‘You don’t trust me to do this.’
Sheila leaned forward, her voice a whisper. ‘We’re not saying that, Dom, but this situation needs experience.’
Not her too?
Vanessa added, ‘Both Charlie and I have more of it than you. Pass the responsibility to us. Let us keep everyone safe.’
Dom stared at Sheila. He’d expected her to at least have his back. She was staring at the table.
What he wouldn’t give for this to be over.
He shook his head. ‘I have as much rebel experience as you, more, even. I spent time here.’
Vanessa leaned back. ‘So did I. In this very library.’
He scoffed. ‘Our experiences were not the same.’
‘Perhaps not, but the problem persists that this city is not safe.’
That bothered him, too, to be inside a city with no conflict. The thought drove him to his feet.
‘Where are you going?’ asked Sheila.
He ignored her and walked over to his ex-guard, lounging against one of the stacks while his warders perused the shelves next to him. The Copy straightened up when Dom approached him.
‘What’s the deal with this city?’
‘Excuse me?’
‘You heard. Where are all the other Copies?’
The prisoner shrugged and smiled. ‘Left as soon as the barrier failed.’
‘So, why were you left behind?’
He shrugged again. ‘They trusted me to stop you.’
A fight with six dozen Copies, not one, would have been more successful for them. The fight had been too easy.
‘Are they coming back? The Copies?’ asked Dom.
‘I don’t think so.’
‘And the Collective? Is it still here?’
He would have asked Carissa, but she was no longer connected to the city.
‘It left.’
Dom was getting tired of the one-dimensional answers. ‘Where did it go? How did it leave?’
The prisoner shrugged. ‘One of the Copies downloaded their ten consciousnesses into a machine. They took that machine with them.’
‘What is the Beyond?’
The Copy averted his gaze.
Dom grabbed the front of his uniform. ‘What is it?’
The guard looked back at him. Dom wasn’t sure how to read all emotions in these things, but he thought he saw jealousy.
‘I don’t know. It’s a place the Collective is curious about. It’s a place I’ve never been.’
He pushed Dom off him. The soldiers restrained the prisoner.
Dom turned and walked away. It didn’t matter where. Without more detail, he was flying blind. Maybe Vanessa and Charlie were right. Maybe they should return to the camp and wait for more help.
He stopped and his gaze found Anya. She was clutching the book tightly. Her eyes were wider than usual. From where he stood, her grief was palpable.
Vanessa came up to him and touched his arm. ‘Let’s leave this city, Dom. We can hit this place again soon, but for now we should plan from the camp.’
The Copy guard flashed him a look. Surprise? Worry? Relief?
He shucked her off. ‘With respect to you and Charlie, I’m in charge. That’s how you wanted it, that’s how it will be.’
Charlie shrugged as if he’d run out of ways to convince him. ‘Okay, what’s your decision?’
He glanced at Anya, who looked too stiff to be comfortable. ‘We keep looking.’ He saw her shoulders relax. ‘The city is on the back foot. I intend to take advantage of that.’
14
Anya
Finding the Beyond would give her answers. That’s what Anya believed. Right now, Jason and her parents’ deaths had been for nothing. Senseless. The answer to why they had to die rested there.
She sighed with relief when Dom went against Vanessa and Charlie’s advice. But when she caught Dom’s former guard looking at her, eyes narrowed, she straightened up and gripped her weapon tighter.
‘What are you looking at?’ she asked him.
The Copy smirked at her. One of the soldiers slapped him across the face. The Copy laughed. Hard.
Anya strode up to him and pressed the barrel of her Electro Gun into his chest. She felt him flinch. ‘What’s your problem?’
‘Filthy, dirty Originals. That’s all you are.’
It was Anya’s turn to laugh. ‘And yet, you were modelled after us. A little ironic, don’t you think?’
The smile on the prisoner’s face disappeared. ‘I’m nothing like you.’ He looked away. ‘The others are, the cowards who abandoned this city.’ He looked back and sneered. ‘I chose to stay, because I care about my home and I don’t want to see you take it over. You should know you’re all wasting your time here.’
Anya shoved the gun into his gut.
Behind her, Dom said, ‘Take it easy.’
‘Wasting, why?’
The Copy lifted his chin. ‘The Beyond doesn’t exist. If it did, we would have found it by now. But you, pathetic Originals, you can’t organise yourselves in an open-field fight.’
Anya poked the prisoner in the ribs with the tip of her gun. ‘Say that again.’
He grunted. ‘I heard what happened out there. We’re all connected, you see. The Collective, it tells us everything.’
Anya doubted that. Carissa had been talking to Quintus. He’d contacted her before their escape from the city, while in the camp, during the battle.
‘Not everything.’
Anya pulled her gun back and marched out the door. Outside, the light hurt her eyes, but it wasn’t
