MEMORIES ARE MADE UP OF flashes of color, pungent smells, and feelings strong enough to take you over. Entering the charred remains of my mother’s former tomb—not to mention my own attempted murder by Dr. Yang—smells like the char of nightmares, the chemical tang of tubes and pipes that kept my mother alive until I disconnected her. There are benches set in front of the Arch filled with Firsts and Seconds on one side and Menghu on the other. All seem to have hands inside their coats, City- and Mountain-folk alike searching for the weapons that have been taken away from them. At the very front, standing at the base of the Arch like a dog at attention, Helix heads a group of Menghu who watch the crowd.
I’d be willing to bet he has a weapon.
Dr. Yang climbs up onto the Arch just as Kasim and I reach the benches, filtering in with the last stragglers from the Third Quarter and coming to rest in the place my mother once stared down at. Raising his hands, Dr. Yang’s mouth opens to speak just as another gunpowder boom traces fire across the sky, lighting his face with gold.
“We are here together in a place long fought over,” Dr. Yang begins once the firework’s sound has faded from our ears. His voice, distorted by his gas mask, is amplified through the speakers set up to either side of the Arch. “We are here, old enemies, at a time when families should be together. We come mourning instead. Fathers, mothers, children. Gone.”
I crane my neck, combing the audience for the people we seek. General Hong. The Chairman. Howl. From the back, it’s hard to see much of anything. Kasim nudges me, inching to the side, but I’m not sure what he wants me to do. We can’t walk up the aisles to get a better view of the room, not when everyone else is sitting so nicely, paying attention. Plus, shooting Dr. Yang now would mean that the Chairman and General Hong, wherever they are, would fly free. And who knows what would happen to Howl? We need to see all four before we can move.
I touch the gun inside my coat. I’ve always been a passable marksman. When I was young, I practiced until I could hit any target. Kasim tested me before we left, showing me a pinecone, a snowy branch, a knot in a tree, and asking me to shoot. I can still do it. It’s just that shooting a human isn’t quite the same thing.
“We come with war hanging on us like death.” Dr. Yang holds a hand up as if to take in the destruction of the building, of the torches glowing hot in the night, and the eyes waiting on the other side. “Our old enemy has given us a disease we cannot fight. Rebels have taught those who could help us to keep the cure to themselves. And now even our refuges are threatened by helis carrying weapons that were outlawed during the Influenza War.”
Dr. Yang looks up at the sky, the night reflected in his eyes. His speech is coming faster now, as if there’s a timer on his words and he’s about to run out. “Tonight, I want to show you what we—City and Mountain—could be if we worked together.”
Which is when I hear it. Not the drone of a heli hovering above or the roar of one landing. Not the hiss and scream of chemical bombs pouring from the night sky. It’s a sort of dry flapping sound, almost too quiet to register. But the Menghu around me begin to murmur the moment their ears capture the sound, some going as far as to stand and head for the edges of the lighted square.
“Stay where you are!” Dr. Yang’s command raps out even as my stomach churns. What is it that has everyone so frightened?
Another firework hisses into the night sky, crowning over our heads in a red glory and lighting up the metal hull of a heli lurking in the sky.
“Don’t be afraid.” Dr. Yang smiles benevolently down on us. His light tenor voice is strained as he looks at the heli’s black outline against the sky.
Kasim swears, grabbing my arm to haul me to my feet. “Maybe all he ever wanted was to kill us,” he rasps. “Come on. We run.”
Just as we clear the benches, a deeper crack than the cannon launching the fireworks tears through my ears, and then another and another in quick succession, blinding me with their light. I stumble, Kasim’s hand around my arm tightening as he tries to drag me up from the ground.
The world seems imprinted in purple and ghostly white, all except for an angry orange roar in the air where the heli was, dribbling flames down as it careens to the ground out in the forest below. Something black flashed across the glow just before it fell, as if the occupants jumped out to avoid the flames. Would the fall be better than burning?
“Look at me,” the doctor’s voice purrs. “When we were separated Outside and fending for ourselves, it took one heli to send us running. But here, with all of us together, it was easy to lure it. To destroy it. The weapon was a combination of technology discovered in the City and the Mountain, the execution of this plan facilitated by good people on both sides.” His voice rises even as a group stands up from the front row of benches to stand next to him. “With City walls, Menghu military expertise, with our engineers, workers, medics, and researchers all working together, look what we are capable of!”
My heart gallops back and forth in my chest, and I’m still blinking away the afterimages of whatever it was they used to shoot down the black heli. But even as my sight returns, all I can see are flames on the forest floor.
Kasim tugs my arm, leading me farther up the benches, his walk quick and intentional. My breath hitches in my chest as I see why he’s changed course so suddenly, and I match my stride to his, ending up near the middle of the benches with a clear view of the people at the front.
Just below the doctor, Chairman Sun and General Hong stand to either side of the Arch.
My gut clenches as we slide onto the bench. Still no Howl. Wasn’t this supposed to be his execution?
The crowd doesn’t respond to Dr. Yang’s invitation to cheer. I suppose it was obvious from the moment we stepped off the heli that City and Mountain forces did not like the idea of sharing space. It seems to be distilled into this moment, murmurs rumbling out from both sides of the room. Why? they seem to say. Why invite Outsiders and murderers into our midst? from the Firsts and Seconds, while the Mountain-folk seem to think the arrangement that Dr. Yang had before—where they were taking everything they wanted from the City without restraint—a much better plan.
“To demonstrate our goodwill, our first act as a united people will be to show you what happens to those who have worked so hard to keep us at odds.” Dr. Yang raises one hand in invitation, and three Menghu muscle a fourth figure out into the gaping maw under the Arch. He looks thin. Pale. Complacent, though it seems his guards want him to put up a fight, pushing him roughly to his knees under Dr. Yang’s feet.
Howl.
“We’ve got them,” Kasim whispers. “Chairman’s on the side with all the City-folk, so I’m guessing the Reds he said would cover us are there in front of him. Let’s get close enough to finish this.”
Dr. Yang continues once Howl is in front of him. “This young man spent years masquerading as the Chairman’s own son, stealing vital information and supplies and giving them to the Mountain.” His gleeful monologue sets the Firsts whispering to each other, the Seconds behind them standing to get a better look. “And Menghu have no love for this boy either. He was sent to spy because he’d become unpredictable. Leaving his own soldiers and friends exposed if it meant protecting himself. Even worse than that? When we had the cure to the horrible disease that plagues us, that makes our air poison and injects fear into every moment, he took it. He took it for himself.”
Now it’s the Menghu craning their necks to look at Howl, standing up in their chairs and making it easy for Kasim and me to creep closer. Memories of Mei’s terrified recounting of Howl’s story are enough for me to know that her beliefs about him didn’t just belong to her. Never mind Dr. Yang knows just as I do that Howl didn’t have any cure. That it was the doctor himself who set SS loose on all of us, who destroyed the City, leaving even the highest of the Firsts scrambling for existence and the lowest Third forgotten entirely. Anger wires my jaw shut, my hand pressing hard against the gun.
Chairman’s Sun’s eyes catch our movement as we slink closer to the front, and a grim smile cracks the stony expression on his face.
Eight rows from the front. Seven. I’m ready to end this.
“And it isn’t just Sun Howl who has betrayed us.” Dr. Yang snaps his fingers, and shouts fill the air as a group of soldiers surround the Seconds backing the Chairman. Kasim and I slow in shock, watching as the Seconds fight other Seconds. Surprise from the Chairman’s men makes this fight a quick one. Whispers start at the back of the crowd, and I turn to find two Seconds being frog-marched by their own comrades toward the Arch.
“There was a conspiracy here tonight to assassinate me and General Hong, a pathetic grab at power by the Chairman to regain the hold he had over all of you.” Dr. Yang smiles as the last group of armed Reds surround the Chairman, placing a gun to his head. “He meant to keep the cure from us forever, as he, his father, and his grandfathers all the way back to Yuan Zhiwei have done. But that is not all. Look around you. You will find two people here who do not belong. First, a traitor Menghu by the name of Wu Kasim.”
My heart stops even as Kasim barrels forward, gaining momentum when his gun comes out. Howl’s head jerks up, his mouth open in protest, his eyes following Kasim down the aisle. Menghu from Helix’s team block Kasim’s way, grabbing him by the shoulders and wrestling him to the ground. They extract the gun from his fingers with an audible crunch of broken bones.
Dr. Yang continues as if nothing happened. “Our second traitor is a girl who, when joined with Sun Howl, holds the cure to SS inside her.” He glances down at Howl, who straightens from his hunch, frantically looking out over the crowd. “These two have done everything in their power to keep the cure from us, no matter how many of our children die.” Scanning the crowd, Dr. Yang’s eyes find me. “There you are.”
“No!” Howl’s voice rings out over the din as Menghu look around, trying to figure out how to check under masks without accidentally infecting friends.
Heart thumping, I pull out the gun, only to find a Menghu blocking my way. She shies back from the gun’s muzzle, but in a practiced sort of way that makes me think she’s running the numbers in her head, deciding how best to disarm me. The crowd swells around us, taking her attention away from me as people all try to fit into the small space, and I lurch past her, stumbling between two men in Yizhi’s white coats into the empty bubble of space just in front of the Arch. Howl’s there on his knees, his eyes a fearful swirl of terror and tears. “Sev,” he chokes, “no. Please, no. If you’re here, then what was the point?”
Dr. Yang is directly above him. I point my gun between the old snake’s eyes. “You want to talk about betrayal? What about—”
Which is when three soldiers grab me from behind and knock me over. My head hits the ground, cold stone gritty against my cheek.