CHAPTER 33

They found Callie and Agent Turani waiting in the lobby. Turani hung her head. “Commanding Agent,” she said. “I lost self-control. I’m ashamed.”

“We’ll talk soon,” Lachlan said. “For now, gather the other agents and have them assemble in the Administration building.”

“But we should arrest these—”

“I said, we’ll talk. You and me. Don’t worry about repercussions yet.”

Turani glared at Mineko. “Why did you do it, Tamura? What could these district people possibly offer you?”

“One of these district people just saved your life.” Mineko spoke with her usual quiet firmness. “Perhaps you should take time to reflect on that.”

For a second, Turani seemed about to respond. Instead, she shook her head and continued on her way.

As soon as Turani had left, Callie dashed to Mineko and squeezed her in a bear hug. Mineko gave a breathless laugh. “You scared us,” said Callie. “You and your angry mob.”

Mineko giggled, momentarily a happy young woman rather than a figure of self-control. “You’ve been unwise to trust Lachlan.”

“If he tries anything, I’ll beat him down.”

“No. Stay here. If he does try something, you’ll have time to run.”

“Have you forgotten I’m right here?” said Lachlan. “I can assure you, if any of your friends wish to flee, they’re more than welcome to do so. I’ll even close my eyes and count to ten.”

Callie grinned. “You’re one sneaky shut-in, Reed.”

“Compliment or insult?”

“Fifty-fifty.” Callie bounded over to Riva, who still stood in the doorway, and hugged her tight. “Chickadee! I was so worried about you.”

Riva smiled back, her hand lingering on Callie’s hip. “You were amazing out there. How did you pull yourself up?”

“Hidden muscles.” Callie flexed her right arm. “I practice bouldering out in the canyons, and I’m a beast at parkour.”

“You just keep getting sexier. I should get myself in trouble so that you can come rescue me.”

Lachlan chuckled, but Mineko glared at Riva with such naked animosity that Kade quickly intervened. “We don’t have time for banter. Keep watch down here, and if any more agents show up, let us know.”

“Very good,” said Lachlan. “Don’t leave your back unguarded, especially around evildoers like myself. Now, perhaps we might conclude this in one of the seminar rooms. Objections?”

“No, that’s fine.” Kade reached into his pocket and touched the handle of his revolver. Reassuring though the gun was, it was unlikely he’d have to use it. The time for violence had passed. “Min, let’s go.”

They left Riva and Callie still chattering and walked down a corridor to the seminar room—small, sunlit, and filled with motes of dust. Mineko stood on an illuminated patch of carpet, her upturned face catching the sunlight, while Lachlan lounged against the lectern.

“You didn’t tell them I was lying.” In the light, Mineko’s green eyes seemed impossibly bright and clear. “Instead, you invented a further lie that would have exonerated me. Why?”

“As I told you before, you’re important to me,” Lachlan said. “You have a unique opportunity to inherit real power and liberate other Codists. People like sweet, hopeless Valerie Wren.”

“Don’t bring her into this.”

“She’s not going to forget that kiss, you know.”

Mineko blushed. “You still take pleasure in mocking me, even now.”

“Whatever you’re looking for, you won’t find it outside. Trust me. Stay in the enclave. Participate in the future rather than flee from it.”

As much as Kade wanted to offer some input, to influence Min, he kept himself in check. This was a debate between Codists, and nothing he said now would hold sway.

“I don’t want to live under the Code,” said Mineko.

“There’s always a code. Out there, it’s the code of human baseness. Most district people are covetous, hateful, and vindictive. Codists, in contrast, tend to be timid, well-meaning, and troubled by thoughts of disorder. Like Dr. Wren. Like those students, when they’re not being goaded into acts of hate. Like Agent Turani, desperate to perform her duties well. That’s Codists for you. Meek and obliging.”

“Are you trying to persuade me or to arouse my contempt?”

“Believe me, I also despise these cowards. I just don’t restrict my contempt to the fortunate.” Lachlan produced a humorless smile. “Kade, why don’t you tell her who killed the woman you loved?”

Would that memory ever stop being a physical blow, a fist right into Kade’s chest? “It’s irrelevant,” he said.

“It could hardly be more relevant. This is the life you’re offering her. When Mineko too lies in some district grave, will you then be satisfied?”

“For God’s sake, Lachlan. She’s on the verge of being caught and Reintegrated. For that matter, so are you. You have nobody to protect you.”

“That’s fine. The devil always stands alone in the end.”

Nobody could ever fault Lachlan his gift for melodrama. “The devil doesn’t win, though.”

“Perhaps not. But he knows full well what he’s doing.” Lachlan looked back to Mineko. “Just do what I do, Mineko. Inspire fear, and you’ll no longer be afraid. Laugh whenever you feel like crying. Then you’ll survive.”

“I want to follow Callie.” Mineko spoke softly but with conviction. “I want to see the sky.”

“The sky? You can see it from here.”

“Not the horizon.” Mineko took a phone from her pocket. “You enjoy manipulating me. Now it’s my turn. Discover what happens when you provoke a Tamura beyond the point of tolerance.”

She tapped the phone. Several trills later, it emitted a quiet click. “Mineko?” said a deep, puzzled voice. “Why are you calling me at work?”

“Dad.” Mineko sobbed as tears—perhaps real ones—formed in her eyes. “You have to help me.”

Blackmail. But it was no surprise that Mineko knew that art form. Her entire life, she’d witnessed her father’s craft, and now she was putting the lessons to work…

Lachlan paled and gripped the lectern. Apparently, he was beginning to understand how it felt when somebody else held the strings. Mineko smirked at him, a contemptuous, superior twist of her lips.

“Help you?” said the astounded voice of Gaspar Tamura. “What’s wrong? Are you in trouble?”

“I’ve been taken hostage. They’re district people. Lachlan tried to save me. Him and Agent Turani, they risked their lives for me…”

Now that was one hell of a game-changing move. Sparing Lachlan, yet forcing him to remain complicit in order to enjoy mercy. Judging from Lachlan’s dazed expression, the implications hadn’t been lost on him either.

“Who has you?” said Gaspar. “Where are you? Describe anything you can see. Stay on the line, we’ll track you.”

It was time to do what little he could. Kade held out his hand. Mineko frowned at him but surrendered the phone. “Agent Tamura,” Kade said. “This is Kade August. I have your daughter.”

“What do you want from me?” The fuming tones of a powerful man in a situation outside his control.

“I want you to stop exploiting us for cheap labor. I want you to break the gangs instead of lending them your support. I want your internal oppression to end, for your caste system to be dismantled, for Codists to be allowed to express themselves as they choose. I want you to join us as comrades. To share the burden of a broken world.”

“Radical drivel. What do you really want?”

There was only one path to take now. Kade took a deep breath. “I did this alone. That’s all you need to know for now. I did this alone and nobody helped me.” He ended the call with a tap from his thumb.

A second later, Lachlan’s breast pocket buzzed. Still staring at Mineko, he answered the call.

“Reed here. Yes, sir. It’s true, sir. Yes. He was heavily armed, I couldn’t—yes, I’ll be there straightaway. Yes, every detail. Of course. We’ll get her back, sir. I’m sure August wouldn’t harm—yes, I know. Yes. I was wrong. Clearly. Yes, sir.”

He lowered the phone and locked gazes with the unsmiling young woman opposite him. “Your mother will be heartbroken.”

“Someday, she’ll understand,” said Mineko. “Meanwhile, I hope you appreciate what I’ve done for you and Jasmine. My father will never doubt my version of events. You’ll be pardoned, and Jasmine will get the promotion she’s been craving. Be sure to remind her often that she owes it to my lie. Ambitious as she is, she’ll understand her career now depends upon supporting our version of events.”

Mineko ejected the battery from her phone and tossed it to Lachlan. “They’ll try to track me through this, so take it and dump it in the street. Now you’ve spoken to my father and endorsed my deception, it’s impossible for you to turn back. Furthermore, if you harm my friends, I’ll call home and let them know you facilitated my escape. You’ve lost, Lachlan.”

“To think I’ve been refusing to blackmail you, and now I’m the one being blackmailed. It’s like I told you, Kade. Her father’s mind.”

“Did you plan this?” said Kade. “These choices, this outcome?”

“I’ve reacted to circumstances.” Mineko clasped her hands behind her as she stared out the window. “I’ve long committed myself to the project of overcoming my own weakness, unlike Lachlan, who tries to delude himself that he has power inside here.”

Lachlan pressed his fingers to his temples. “Get out. Leave me to clean up your mess.”

Mineko inspected him the way a bird might contemplate an insect. “I know you intend to kill Lexi or to sabotage the Project in some other way. One of my parents will catch you in the end.”

“Be warned. Your family name means nothing out there.”

“Don’t think I’m running. Remember, breathing is an involuntary act. Resistance must be chosen.”

Where the hell had Mineko read Beatrice Abramo? But there was no time to ask, and she was already halfway to the door.

“I’ll meet you outside,” Kade said. “Five minutes.”

“Five minutes.” Mineko closed the door behind her.

Kade glanced over to Lachlan. “She outplayed you.”

“Yes.” Lachlan moved to the window and stared out. “Gaspar will have squads all over campus within the next half hour. They’ll rake over her room and interrogate students. I have to admit, covering it up will be a challenge.”

Kade joined Lachlan by the window. “But you do love a challenge.”

“I’ve seen for myself how Callie Roux can drive, so I suppose they might even make it to Port Venn. Will Amity be going with them?”

“I doubt it. Foundation is her soil.”

“Which she fertilizes with blood. Dear Amity. Did she recover quickly?”

“Very quickly. You’d best hope your paths don’t cross again.”

Lachlan shrugged. “Perhaps she’ll come to forgive me.”

“Unlikely. What about the gang boss who interfered with you yesterday? Do you plan on hassling her?”

“That she-colossus? Of course not. It would be a sin to remove such an astonishing specimen from Foundation’s ecosystem.” Lachlan breathed a soft, weary sigh. “You noble idiot.”

The window sill was made of real wood, coarse, warmed by the sun. Kade pressed his palm to it. Hard to believe the entire world had once felt as alive and honest as this. “Noble doesn’t seem the right word.”

“You gave your name to Gaspar so that he would focus his search upon you. Desperate to regain Mineko, he’ll devote the majority of our resources to that pursuit. Lexi will have every chance now of escaping the city. In other words, you’ve sacrificed yourself for her. It’s far from a fair trade.”

“You don’t know her.” Kade traced a whorled knot on the sill, following its wild shape. “She and Ash adopted me. A family distilled into two people. Lexi was a sister and a brother both, and Ash was our caretaker.”

“It’s hard to imagine you irresponsible enough to need a caretaker.”

“Ash was older than us by a year. Mature as she was, it felt like a decade. That didn’t stop me falling in love. And somehow, she returned my feelings.”

The room brightened. Ironic that just as his heart was hurting most, the clouds outside had chosen to disperse, fully unveiling the sun and leaving the sky clearer than he’d ever seen it.

“Love,” Lachlan said. “In times like these, you’d think we’d have moved on from that concept, yet here it is, still commanding us.”

“I want Mineko to know what love feels like. Yes, it can be cruel, but my scars are the map I follow whenever I’m lost and frightened. Amity and Nikolas ask me why I never seem to despair. It’s because I know that Ash died loving me. As love is deathless, that means she loves me still.”

“And so she’s the hero, while I’m the coward. You all claim to be repulsed by my treachery, yet when you thought it was only my own people I’d betrayed, you all admired me. In truth, I’ve betrayed nobody. There’s no betrayal in ensuring one’s own survival.”

“A useful rationalization, I’m sure.”

Lachlan stared at Kade with unguarded intensity in his eyes—an emotion somewhere between desperation and anger. “You grieved for Ash. You always will. But did you ever once grieve for me?”

“Only until I felt like a fool for doing so.”

“Do you really think I never considered staying? I longed to. But Ash saw my motive, and she hated me for it.”

“What are you talking about? What motive?”

“She’s the one who reported me to Sarabelle. Never once letting me defend myself. She hated me because she saw from the beginning what you’re too stupid to see even now.” Lachlan touched Kade lightly on the cheek—a moment of fleeting contact that left a warm and lingering imprint on his skin. “I know very well how cruel love is, you arrogant son of a bitch. Had Ash only let me, I would have stayed for you.”

He strode from the room. Kade stared after him, unable to speak. Confusion like an ache winding around his ribs. All these years, and he’d never even guessed.

Mineko peeked through the doorway. “Lachlan just stormed out. Why?”

“He said goodbye.” It seemed truth enough.

“Good. Let’s leave before the situation changes. We can take a rear exit to avoid the students outside.”

“Sure. We’d better grab Callie and Riva first.”

“Do you think Callie is disappointed with me?”

The plaintive question instantly exposed the vulnerable young girl beneath the armor. Kade inspected her with renewed sympathy. Her eyes were penetrating, true, but it was her mouth that made her seem so thoughtful. Her fragile lips curved slightly upward even in rest, as if they bore the imprint of some past happiness that refused to entirely fade.

“Don’t worry about Callie,” he said. “It takes time to really understand someone, and you two will have plenty of it.”

“But will I ever get to know you? You aren’t coming with us. I can tell.”

“I’ll be staying in Foundation. But just because I’m not physically beside you, that doesn’t mean I’m not with you in every moment that matters.”

“I don’t understand.”

Kade laughed, and Mineko gave him a bright, puzzled smile. At her age, he wouldn’t have understood either. But now there was no fact he understood with more certainty or intimacy.

True, the price had been too great. Even so, it was paid.