So Lizzie was alive. And she knew their small band of rebels had survived. And she was looking for them.
This most likely did not bode well for what was left of the resistance.
After a tense moment, Alessa sighed. “Come on.” She motioned the newcomers over towards a large tent that was propped open. “Let’s go talk.”
She locked eyes with Isaac, who was still shaking his head in dismay, and mouthed, “Janie.” He nodded his understanding and left to grab her sister, who had promptly pulled Josephine and Alicia into another tent at the far end of camp at the first sign of trouble.
Ducking through the opening, Alessa flipped over the makeshift map they’d been sketching and cleared some space on the table. They’d dragged in one of the picnic tables in order to use this larger pavilion as a war room, back when Alessa was still inclined to consider war. The map hadn’t been touched in days.
She sat down on the bench, Alex and Deion shuffling in behind her and taking seats across the table.
Alessa took a moment to look at their faces – really look – and see what she could find there. This was one situation in which she wished her empath abilities would work on someone other than the Stuck, or the dead.
Deion, the taller of the two, looked at her earnestly. A glistening layer of sweat beaded on his ebony forehead, which he wiped into his close-cropped hair with the back of his hand. He seemed nervous, but not in a hiding-something way; Alessa was picking up more of a fear-of-being-rejected vibe.
Alex, on the other hand, looked ready to bolt. His almond-shaped eyes darted back and forth across the room, and his chiseled jawline was set in a line of discomfort. But his anxiety felt genuine to Alessa – she supposed Joe could do that to anyone.
She didn’t get the sense that either of them had come with less-than-noble intent. From the little she had witnessed, they seemed like decent guys.
Probably the latest victims of Lizzie’s manipulations, she scorned.
If they were doing anything malicious, Alessa realized, they probably didn’t even know it. She would have to be on her guard.
After what she was sure must have felt like an eternity to Deion and Alex, Alessa finally broke the silence. “So, tell me about Lizzie.”
Deion exhaled, seeming relieved. “You know her, right? You guys are friends?”
Alessa pursed her lips. At one time she would have said that was true, but now? “We… are familiar,” she wagered.
Alex shot Deion a look, but Deion didn’t seem to notice. “She’s in Paragon. She’s undercover with the Engineers.”
“Undercover,” Alessa reiterated, skeptical.
“Yeah,” Alex finally piped in. “She got a position working on the dramas, she’s using it to monitor the satellite film – that’s how she found you.”
Alessa thought she detected a hint of pride in his voice. She wondered what Alex’s relationship was to Lizzie, but then again, she wouldn’t be surprised if he was infatuated with her – like the rest of the male species.
“Satellite film?” Alessa questioned.
“Oh yeah, I guess you wouldn’t know –”
“The current drama series is incorporating real-world footage of the resistance,” Deion explained. “Lizzie thinks they’re using it as anti-rebel propaganda, seeding the populace against you – against us – for whenever we decide to attack.”
Us. We. Alessa wondered if they had any idea what they had gotten themselves into.
“If we decide to attack,” Alessa corrected. “Not so easy when most of the resistance is dead.”
Deion nodded sympathetically. “They showed the explosion on the drama. Lizzie said it was real.”
“What else did Lizzie say about it?” Alessa demanded. These two pawns may not know it, but Janie was still convinced Lizzie had something to do with the blast – and Alessa was inclined to trust her sister’s intuition.
“She doesn’t really know much about what happened.” Deion shrugged. “The Engineers told her it was a fluke, something wrong with your base. Lizzie doesn’t believe them.”
Neither did Alessa. But she didn’t really believe Lizzie, either.
“Is that all?”
Deion looked confused, like he wasn’t sure what she was after. “She doesn’t really remember much. She woke up immediately after and locked herself in a storage shed. She was delirious with hunger and dehydration by the time she reached Paragon.”
“And did she say what she was doing outside Raptor at the time of the detonation?”
It was a loaded question, and they seemed to know it. Alex shifted in his seat and looked at the floor. Deion hesitated, seeming to weigh his answer.
“She was… kidnapping the little girl, the one who’s immune.”
Alessa’s eyebrows shot to the sky. So she admitted it. She knew she shouldn’t trust Lizzie.
“But she was – what do you call it – stitched!” Alex jumped to Lizzie’s defense. “She didn’t realize what she was doing. Well, she kind of realized, but they’d made her forget all kinds of stuff…”
“She’s really sorry about it now,” Deion offered.
Janie chose that moment to finally make an appearance.
“Janie,” Alessa said in greeting. “Deion and Alex here were just telling me that Lizzie was stitched when she decided to abduct Josephine.”
Janie rolled her eyes and sat down. “Of course she was.”
Alessa wasn’t sure she was buying Lizzie’s story, either.
She looked back to the guys and was curious to notice Deion staring blatantly at Janie.
Janie noticed too and raised an eyebrow at him. “Do I know you from somewhere?” she exacted.
“I don’t think so…” Deion replied cautiously. “But I’m pretty sure I know you. Zeta Epsilon Pi?” His face broke out in a demure smile.
Janie rolled her eyes again, but Alessa couldn’t help but notice that she was blushing faintly and the corners of her mouth had twisted up ever so slightly. She thumbed her fist towards Alessa. “What about this one?”
Deion glanced curiously towards Alessa, and then it hit him all at once. “Oh! You were all on that drama! I didn’t recognize you with the shorter hair.”
Alessa knew he was being polite. “Or the dirt,” she added with a self-deprecating smile, motioning at the build-up of grime on her arms. She’d barely been able to make a dent in it all these weeks with the ash from the explosion still littering the ground and clouding the streams.
“So Lizzie claims she was stitched,” Janie steered the conversation back to the subject at hand.
“What, you don’t think she’s telling the truth?” Deion surmised.
“She’s definitely telling the truth,” Alex defended.
Alessa could tell, again, that they really did believe her. But she just wasn’t sure if she could trust their judgment. Though, she supposed it didn’t really matter – if Lizzie knew where the rebels were, it meant they had no choice but to cooperate. If they tried to escape, she could probably track them. But if they worked with her – even if she tried to double-cross them – at least they had a chance at getting at the Engineers.
Alessa decided to press them anyway. “What makes you so sure?”
“She showed us the hotel,” Alex revealed.
“And what’s going on upstairs…” Deion elaborated, grimacing.
“They’d removed her memories of it,” explained Alex. “She said it all came back when she was in the editing room one day. They’ve just been using her to get to Regina, she said.”
Alessa shook her head. “Well, didn’t do them much good. Regina is gone now, along with the rest of them.”
“Maybe that was the point,” Deion speculated.
“Lizzie seems to think so,” Alex offered.
“I thought Lizzie said they wanted peace?” Janie interjected. “She’s been trying for months to get us to agree to a ceasefire – she’s been blackmailing us over it.”
Deion shrugged. “I don’t think she believes anything the Engineers say anymore.”
“But she did,” Alex reminded them. “She really did believe them, when she was stitched. She thought she was doing the right thing. She wants to fix it now.”
“And she needs your help. We need your help.” Deion gave Alessa an earnest look, his eyes pleading.
They really believed in what they were doing, she could see that. And she wanted to have faith in Lizzie’s story. She was just so afraid her trust would be misplaced.
A long moment of silence hung in the air.
Finally, Janie broke it. “What exactly is Lizzie planning? What does she want us to do?”
“She’s still got access to the Engineers,” Alex disclosed. “She wants to get your team back on the compound to take them out.”
Alessa considered for a moment. This might be just the break they needed – rather than setting the Stuck loose in an all-out attack, they could go in quietly and cut off the snake’s head. Alessa could tell from Janie’s intrigued expression that she was thinking the same. But they’d need to discuss it with Isaac and Carlos before they agreed to anything.
“Very well,” Alessa stated. “We will consider your request. You are dismissed.” Sounding more like Regina than she’d intended to, Alessa realized she certainly hadn’t asked for it, but after somehow falling into the role of liaison for all their potential allies, she’d kind of usurped Carlos to become the rebels’ de facto leader. No wonder he was so cross.
But as much as she admired Regina, she also knew she didn’t want to lead like her – she wanted to always put people first.
“Help yourself to food, water, a tent, whatever you need,” she added more solicitously. “We’re glad you came.”
Deion stood and offered her his hand. “Thank you for hearing us out. And for not letting us get shot.”
“Or eaten,” Alex added, still clearly preoccupied with Joe.
Alessa smiled.
They exited the tent, though not before Deion sent a subtle wink in Janie’s direction, which Alessa was pretty sure she was not supposed to have seen. She considered teasing her sister about it, but when she looked over at her and saw a glow in her face that she hadn’t seen in months, she decided against it. If a little flirting could pull Janie out of her funk, so much the better for it.
Within moments, the tent flaps parted again, and Isaac walked in, followed by a surly-looking Carlos.
“So, how’d it go?” Isaac coaxed.
Carlos just crossed his beefy arms and waited.
Alessa gave him an apologetic look. She really did respect Carlos – the last thing she wanted to do was alienate him.
“Lizzie sent them,” Alessa confided.
“Lizzie made it?” Isaac exclaimed.
“Lizzie made it,” Janie confirmed.
Even Carlos looked cheered at this news, though, like the rest of them, conflicted. He sat down at the table across from Alessa, and Isaac joined him. “What does she want?” he asked guardedly.
Janie broke down what they’d discussed, Alessa filling in the details Janie had missed from the beginning of the conversation. Isaac and Carlos nodded along, taking in Deion and Alex’s story and silently evaluating the merit of Lizzie’s claims.
“So what do you think?” Alessa directed her question mainly at Carlos in an effort to pacify his bruised ego. After all, he was the expert when it came to military stuff, and he was a solid leader as well – if it was up to her, she’d rather him be in charge anyway, if he wouldn’t be so bellicose.
He perched his elbows on the table, thoughtful. “I dunno, amigos… I’m not sure I trust Lizzie after everything you told me. I’d still like to use our secret weapons.” He glanced through the tent opening at Joe, who was still loitering around outside.
“I’m not sure we trust her, either,” Alessa admitted. “But I’m not sure it matters. What if we can utilize the Stuck, but only where we need them? What if we can take Lizzie up on her offer to get at the Engineers, and focus their attack right there? That way we keep the Stuck away from the rest of the citizens, and hit Paragon just where it hurts.”
Carlos considered for a moment, his head bobbing with thought. “A surgical strike.”
“Yes,” Alessa replied. She hadn’t known there was a name for it – this is why she needed Carlos. “Exactly.”
“I like it,” Isaac said.
“Me too,” Janie concurred.
“So it’s settled?” Alessa felt a lightness in her chest that she hadn’t all week. “We’ll take Lizzie up on her offer.”
Carlos stood up, shooting a smile at Alessa that was only half-begrudging; that was an improvement at least. “Let’s see what she can do.”