Chapter 16
“That last assignment was an insult to my skill set, but I dropped you know what you know where. Can I do something a little more interesting next time?” - Decoded message from ILF undercover operative Nightingale to ILF handler Hiro Tanaka
Marcus
We run the entire way, Nova’s somber expression when we meet her at the Sub entrance making my chest constrict.
“I’m sorry,” she says to me. “Ellison wanted me to call you. She said he doesn’t have much time.”
“You did the right thing.” I look over my shoulder at Briar and say, “Let’s go see him.”
She hesitates. “You and Ellison have known him a lot longer. I’m not sure I belong there.”
“You belong wherever I am. Come on.”
I lead the way into the Sub, my thoughts jumbled. My anger toward Randall McClain is easy. He earned it many times over. It’s the other feelings that are more complex.
“Hey.” Briar stops me outside the room Ellison has McClain in. “Are you sure you should do this? We’re underground right now, and if you lose control—”
“I won’t. Stay in there with me no matter what, and I’ll be okay.”
She nods, takes my hand and brings it to her mouth, kissing the back of it. “Don’t say anything you’ll regret.”
“I won’t.”
When I open the door and see my former mentor, I freeze.
He’s just a shell of a man, his face and body nothing but skin and bone. More than fifteen seconds pass before his chest rises with a hard-won breath.
“He’s comfortable,” Ellison says softly from a chair in the corner.
I step inside and Briar follows, closing the door.
“Can he hear us?” I ask.
“I don’t know. But I’ve always believed it’s possible.”
He was never a physically large man, but he was a giant to me. Soft-spoken and wise. A pioneer in genetics. A good listener. A selfish bastard.
I sit down on the stool beside his bed, taking his bony hand in my much larger one. “It’s Marcus. Ellison and Briar are here, too.”
So much time passes before his next breath that I think he’s already gone. Slowed breathing is part of the body’s process of dying, but it’s hard to see on someone you know and care for.
“You’re on the threshold. We talked about the afterlife a few times, and I know you don’t believe in it. I do, though. I don’t know what it’ll be like. Obviously.”
I hang my head, Briar coming up behind me and putting her hands on my shoulders. It’s a fight to get the next words out.
“I ... love you, Randall. I never called you that, even though you told me to.” I swipe my thumb beneath my eyes.
“There were times when I hated you, but love ...” I swallow hard.
“It was there, too. I know you’d undo all of it if you could.
And whatever comes after this, go there at peace.
We’ve got it. We’re going to end what we started six years ago.
I hope you can watch it all burn from wherever you go next. ”
Ellison stands beside me, a steady reminder that I’m not the only one who struggled with what McClain did. We’ve talked about it, and she told me she had to let go of the past in order to move forward.
I want to let go. I just don’t know how.
“He wants us to put his ashes in the volcano,” Ellison says.
“That’s ... a choice.”
“You know him.” There’s a smile in her voice. “He said he wants to go out with a bang.”
“That’s what we’ll do, then.”
Within half an hour, almost a minute is passing between his rattling inhales. We wait for the next one to come, but it doesn’t.
Ellison goes to his other side to check for a pulse, then uses her stethoscope to check for a heartbeat. She shakes her head.
“Will you check?” she asks.
I put my fingers on his wrist to check for a radial pulse and get nothing. When I press my fingertips over his carotid artery, the result is the same.
“He’s gone,” I say.
I stand and push out a long exhale, turning away from him. Briar puts her arms around my back in a hug.
“I’m sorry,” she says, pressing her cheek to my shoulder.
“Yeah. I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything.”
Ellison covers him with a sheet. She’s done this many times; I don’t know how she stays so optimistic and unflappable when she spends so much time around pain and death.
“I’ll go let everyone know,” I say.
Briar and I walk out of the room, planning to leave the Sub when Nova races past us.
“Something’s happening,” she calls, sounding worried.
I follow her, Briar right on my heels. Nova punches in a key code to get us into the most secure area of the Sub.
Stella’s standing in the hallway outside McClain’s office, her eyes wide. An alarm is beeping from inside the room, which hardly anyone ever goes in anymore. I send the perfunctory emails, posing as McClain, that keep our supplies coming, and that’s about it.
“I was cleaning guns in the gun room when I heard the beeping,” Stella says. “Do you think it’s a bomb?”
“It’s not a bomb,” I say, walking into the office.
I’m shocked to find part of the wall, about an eighteen-inch square, drawn up like a garage door to reveal a screen. It always looked like a regular part of the wall.
I don’t know what’s more concerning—the hidden screen, or the fact that it has my name on it.
The words “For Marcus Wells only” flash in red letters on the screen. Beside the screen, there’s a thumbprint pad with a red light below it.
I raise my thumb to it, wondering what fresh hell this is.
“Do you want us to leave?” Briar asks.
“Fuck no.”
When I press my thumb to the pad, it takes a few seconds for it to read. There’s a click when the light switches from red to green.
The alarm goes silent and the face of an AI-generated woman appears on the screen.
“Hello, I’m Aria, your automated response and instruction assistant. According to biometric sensors, the leader of this island is deceased. Condolences.”
This is fucked, but I don’t risk looking at Briar because I need to pay attention to every word this automated thing says.
“Your leader named you as their successor. Congratulations. Report to Island Three within twelve hours for a briefing. There is a vessel stored at the location on this map.” Aria’s computer-generated face disappears and a map pops up.
“I’m drawing the map,” Nova says from behind me.
“Only the designated leader may access the vessel, which will only accommodate the leader. It will take four hours and forty-two minutes to reach Island Three from this location. If you don’t arrive at Island Three within twelve hours, the mainland command will send forces to assess and seize control of your island. Peace, prosperity and order.”
The propaganda line makes my stomach turn. I haven’t heard it in a while. It’s a load of shit the regime uses to make themselves sound like the good guys.
My name returns to the screen, but it’s not flashing anymore.
When I turn to Briar, Nova, and Stella, they’re all looking back at me in disbelief.
“Island Three?” Briar looks ready to punch someone. “This isn’t the only fucking one?”
“I didn’t know there were more,” I say.
McClain kept everyone on a need-to-know basis, and I thought I knew a lot, but I had no idea there were multiple islands. It’s staggering. What is the regime doing at this other island, and how many other islands are there?
“You have to go,” Nova says. “Soon.”
“No.” Briar is adamant. “If they find out you’re not on their team anymore, they’ll kill you.”
“If I don’t go, we’re all cooked. We can’t have them sending soldiers here. I’ll pretend I’m still on board with the peace and prosperity bullshit.”
Briar closes her eyes, her expression anguished. The last thing I want to do is leave her when I just got her back, but I don’t have a choice.
“Listen,” I say. “You three are the ones I trust the most. I want you to lead together while I’m gone.
We’re on dangerous ground, building the bridge and trying to replenish the garden and farm.
Don’t let petty bullshit divide you. Rely on each other.
Theron can walk back into this camp anytime he wants. Protect this camp.”
“We will,” Stella says. “But what happens if you don’t come back?”
“I will.”
“Trust me, I want that. But we need to plan for contingencies. So if you don’t?”
Briar turns away. Stella is right—we have to remove the emotion from this situation.
“If I’m not back within a week, Nova’s the new leader here. And I want you two to have her back. Always.”
Briar nods, her back to me.
She’s upset, and I get it. If she was leaving this place and I thought she might be in danger, I’d feel the same way.
“None of this information leaves this room,” I say. “I need to decide what to tell the others about this, and we don’t need people panicking. Promise me.”
Nova nods, and Stella says, “I promise.”
I exhale through my nose and say, “Give us a minute alone.”
Nova and Stella leave the room, closing the door as they go. Briar turns to face me, tears shining in her eyes.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” she says softly.
“I don’t want to go. But I have to.”
“I didn’t need anyone before.” She blinks and tears fall onto her cheeks. “But now—”
It guts me, seeing her so upset. I wrap my arms around her, the mossy scent of the cave still in her hair.
“I know,” I say. “I need you, too. I know how to take care of myself, B. I’ll come back to you.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
“Be careful.”
“You know I will. Don’t worry about me and forget to keep your guard up. Be careful who you trust.”
She pulls back and looks up at me, a wrinkle between her brows. “Why? Is there someone you’re suspicious of?”
“No, but it’s easy to get complacent and put your life in someone else’s hands without realizing it. Keep a gun on you all the time and watch your back. Watch Nova’s too. I know she can be abrasive, but I trust her with my life.”
She nods, her earthy eyes solemn. “I will.”
I cup her cheeks. “This won’t take long. I’ll probably only be gone a few days.”
She furrows her brow, but says, “Okay.”
I lean down and touch my forehead to hers.
“This is our chance. I live with the weight of what I could’ve done but didn’t every day.
If there’s a vessel hidden somewhere on this island that I didn’t know about, what else is here?
We’re going to have the power to end Rising Tide and save everyone in our camp. I’ll find a way to get us home.”
She sighs softly. “We can find Mae.”
“And then we’ll find that monster who hurt you and I’ll show him what hurt really means. We’re going to burn this shit to the ground. This is our opening.”
“Okay. I love you, Marcus.”
“I love you, too. And we’ll be together again soon.”