Chapter 38
chapter
thirty-eight
Haven
I’m not so shockingly kept in the dark about our next mission. I’ve been deprived of Knox’s good company while we drive over and relegated to the back with the other recruits. We sit, huddled on the padded benches, knees nearly touching, forced to face one another as the transport rattles on.
If I had to guess, we’re either hunting or attacking rebels; it seems to be all that we do. Both possibilities make me uneasy. I didn’t know we were leaving until we got assembled. I had no time to warn Idris on my comms link.
Unease filters through me.
Spider kicks my feet with his boot.
“Nervous?” he asks.
“No,” I say. “You?”
“Born ready.”
I scoff. He’s too cocky for his own good.
“Stay safe, little psycho,” I say.
“You, too, sunshine.”
“Don’t call me that,” I grumble.
“Why? You let En—”
I elbow Spider. Hard. Silencing him before anyone else can hear him. Ender rarely calls me that and never in public. But of course, Spider knows; he knows everything.
Spider grins, relishing my attention. He doesn’t care if I’m smiling or cursing at him. Just so long as I deign to converse with him, he’s happy.
The damn fool.
“You’re with me,” Ender says.
“No, I’m not,” I say. “I’ll search with Rei or Spider.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion, Warrick.”
Ender marches ahead of me, abruptly ending the conversation.
“When are you going to stop treating me like a baby?” I ask. “Why do I always have to stick with you when no one else does? Is it because I have no powers?”
“Shut up,” he snaps. “I’m trying to focus.”
We’re in an old transit tunnel. The ceiling arches low, ribbed with soot and white cobwebs.
Old cabs sit abandoned along the platform, their silver paint dulled beneath the thick film of dust. Windshields are webbed with cracks, and wires hang like dead vines from above.
The empty seats are torn and shredded, tuffs of sponge peeking from the cracked red leather.
The control compartment still has a meter frozen mid-fare, as if the driver meant to come back and never did.
“Are we looking for rats down here?” I ask. “Because that’s the only thing we’ll find.”
“I suppose you could call them that.”
“Why do you hate the rebels so much?” I ask curiously.
His head whips around, staring at me like I asked a dangerous question.
A beam hanging high tilts down, barreling towards the ground. Ender shoves me, cupping my head with his big palm. The iron misses my skull by mere inches.
“Thanks,” I mumble.
I take a step forward and trip over a loose cable. Ender grabs my elbow, steadying me.
“What the hell is wrong with you today?” he asks.
“Maybe you should not have kissed me and made things awkward,” I burst out.
He looks to the sky, as if he is gathering his patience.
“Focus,” Ender bites. “Maybe if you capture a rebel. I’ll reward you with a real kiss. Since you’re so down bad for it.”
He brushes past me, taking the lead. He kicks aside debris, clearing a path for me to walk safely. I march behind him, annoyed and perhaps slightly touched that he is looking out for me in his own brutish way.
“I am not down bad for it!” I say.
“Then why do you keep talking about it?” he asks. “And you told Knox, really?”
Ender tosses me an annoyed look over his shoulder.
I shrug unrepentantly. Knox met me for lunch yesterday, and there was a quiet pause.
It made sense to tell him what his friend was up to.
Plus, I was itching to chat with Knox. We haven’t had a good catch-up session in a while.
At least it wasn’t Spider whom I confided in. Ender would not live that one down.
“So, why do you hate the rebels?” I ask, switching the topic.
“My aunt was killed by a rebel during a raid,” Ender says. “My mother had an older sister. I was closer to her, far more than I was to my mother, and her loss hit hard.”
I recall Ender’s mother. Her perfect coiffed hair and ruby lips.
“Was your aunt a soldier?”
Ender nods. A smile graces his lips.
“She taught me how to shoot long-range.”
“She sounds cool,” I say.
“She was,” Ender echoes.
“Do you think the rebels are all bad?” I ask. “What if a soldier killed someone they love like a rebel killed your aunt? What if they are fighting for justice, for freedom?”
Hi gaze darkens when it swings back to me.
“The casualties don’t matter anymore. We’ve both taken losses. It is too dangerous to leave people’s powers unchecked,” Ender explains. “It would lead to anarchy. Rules are enforced for the safety of the people.”
“Is that what your father told you to say?” I ask bitterly.
He sounds like a mindless soldier. Not a person with thoughts and opinions of their own. Perhaps, I had misread the fire in his eyes for passion when really it was just blind obedience all along.
“Careful,” he growls. “I would hate to have you arrested as a rebel-sympathizer. Do you want to be imprisone—”
The blast comes without warning. One second, we’re pushing through the rubble, and the next, the ground bucks beneath us. The air clouded with dust.
“Warrick, watch out!” Ender shouts.
But it’s too late, I’m thrown sideways. My body hits the wall with an impact that rattles my lungs. A violent roar sounds before the stone cracks and the ceiling gives out. I manage to roll before it crashes down on me.
I get on my knees and try to see if Ender is fine. Smoke and ash cloud the air, tickling my nose.
I can make out Ender’s figure, and I take a step towards him when a second explosion rocks through the far end of the tunnel. The floor drops between us, concrete collapsing into a black void. We were a few feet apart, but now a chasm lies between us.
“Warrick!” Ender calls.
“I’m fine,” I say, coughing violently.
Fumes thicken the air, and I hope a fire doesn’t spark. I notice Ender standing on the other side. His eyes are wide with panic, but they soften when he realizes that I’m unharmed.
A wall of debris crashes downward, cutting him off from view.
“Ender!” I scream.
I tap my comm, calling out his name. It is impossible to hear with the rushing rocks volleying down.
The device shrieks with feedback, then dies in my ear.
I rip it out, heart hammering. Around me, the tunnel has fractured into branching corridors, half-collapsed and unstable.
Emergency lights stutter like a butterfly trapped in a jaw, painting everything in a sickly red glow.
I force myself to breathe.
This has to be the Resistance. They’ve stopped fleeing when the soldiers hunt them, and they’ve begun to fight back. I’m proud of them, but one of these days they’re going to get me killed.
A sound echoes down the tunnel, boots crunching over rubble. Voices murmur, low and urgent.
“They’ve split up,” someone says. “The Commandant is on the right. The girl is on the left.”
I duck into a side passage just as a shadow crosses the junction.
I keep low, moving in silence. My breath is shallow, my eyes are itchy, and my entire body aches from the bomb.
I hope Prue gave these rebels my description, and they know I’m not the enemy.
Being a double agent is getting harder by the day.
One day, I might get a bullet in my head, and I don’t know which side the shot will come from.
A sharp pain blooms in my side. I hiss softly, pressing a hand to my ribs. Blood soaks my gloves. A piece of shrapnel is stuck in my flesh.
“Where is he?” a feminine voice asks shakily.
The girl sounds afraid.
I’m a little nervous that they brought someone unprepared to face Ender Vale.
I hope I won’t be forced to save them. Ender is on to me, and I can’t keep talking my way out of this.
I refuse to defect until I know my sister is safe with the Resistance.
Or the regime will just use her as leverage to root me out.
I edge deeper into the ruins, pulse racing, as I keep to the shadows. There’s a half-collapsed maintenance room ahead. It could be a good hiding spot until this blows over.
I slip inside, leaving the door cracked open so I can see what is happening out there.
A second later, another explosion rocks the tunnel. The entire room shakes, and I fear the door will rip off its hinges, leaving me exposed. The sound comes from the left, where Ender and I just were, which means they’re trying to weed him out.
A growl rips through the air. One that sounds like a pack of wolves. The rebels gasp.
There seem to be about four of them from up here. Not enough to take down Ender. They would need a whole regiment to bring him in.
“It’s not real,” a voice calls. “Just the Illusionist. Keep moving.”
The door opens, and I leap back just as a lanky boy enters. His face is covered, and he approaches me cautiously, staring at where my hand clutches my side.
“Didn’t mean to hurt you, love,” he says. “Can’t say the same for your leader.”
“I’m—”
“Know who you are, Timebender,” he says. “Name’s Miles. Pleased to meet you.”
“Is Prue just telling everyone who I am?” I ask, annoyed. “What if you are captured and tortured by the Commandant?”
“Got a pair of brass balls, nobody’s getting any answers from me.”
I roll my eyes at his bravado. His voice hasn’t even broken in yet.
“What do you want?” I ask. “You can’t capture Ender. He’s too strong, and those grenades did not hurt him.”
“Planning on using you as bait,” he says. “How good an actress are you?”
“Our rules are to never negotiate with you guys,” I explain. Since he clearly knows nothing about military protocol. “Ender knows that. He won’t give in.”
“I reckon he will, for a pretty little thing like you.” He winks. “I know I would. Now come on. We don’t have much time.”
I hesitate. “What happens if he doesn’t bite? I don’t want to be fake kidnapped again. I have better things to do with my time.”
“It won’t come to that.”
He spins me around and leads me by the throat, pressing his gun to my skull.
He whistles loudly.
“I have your partner, Commandant!” he calls. “Want her back?”