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We waited for twilight to settle over the city. This was exactly what I’d had in mind—the opportunity to do something real for the people who needed it most. The children.
I crouched with Carter at the back corner of the group home, dressed head to toe in black. It wasn’t where I’d expected to be after my last eventful weeks of school. No. It was mid-June and I should have been on a date with Carter at a nice restaurant or visiting with him and his parents, talking about wedding dresses with Anna, and meeting with academic advisors at the college.
Instead, I huddled between Carter and the three-story building, waiting for the signal that would set tonight’s events into motion.
“It’ll be dangerous,” he’d warned our group after laying out the plan. “If you get arrested, there’s no turning back.”
“I know.” The attempt to reassure him sounded hollow and now that we were here, nausea roiled in my gut, but I had to do something.
So here I was, doing it.
A few of the Operation Reunion members had already entered the home, quietly and assuming various roles—mostly as staff members, as well as two posing as a couple looking to adopt a Separatist child. I’d always known about the adoptions and thought them charitable, to take in a child in need of a family. Now they seemed like the cruelest possible outcome, to completely sever a child’s connection to their biological family.
Granted, that family was probably dead, but if Operation Reunion had ways of finding them alive, then these children deserved to be with their parents.
The plan to smuggle an entire residential facility worth of children out of the city was beyond audacious, but Carter was right. We had to do something to let the government know we meant business, to truly transform our city. If our governor’s main weapon was fear, then we needed to fight back. Maybe even strike some fear in their hearts, as well.
Kira had shown me that there was something beyond the wall, and Carter had told me the rest: there were people waiting to get Exiles and escaped family members to somewhere safe. Together. When he’d told me that, I spent several sleepless nights wondering why no one came for us. To save us from the city itself.
“Because...” He’d rubbed at his forehead and shrugged. “It’s complicated.”
There was a history none of us knew, lost for whatever reason. It made me wonder what truths were out there, beyond the wall. If life after the Fracture was truly as hopeless as we’d been taught.
For the first time in my life, I was going to get a glimpse outside the wall. I was one of the people who would help guide the children to it, beyond it, but not much farther. That was the job of those on the other side.
Carter raised his hand and I tensed back against the building. The signal was coming and that knowledge sent tension ricocheting through my entire body. His fingers closed into a tight fist. Go.
I rose to my feet as a flash of light cut across the darkness from inside the first floor of the home. Thunder followed, the sound of the flashbang grenade rocking the ground. I’d never heard or seen anything like it, except during the most violent summer storms. It wasn’t a tactic I liked, mostly out of concern that it would terrify the children.
But Carter had argued that it was the only way to incapacitate the staff without causing lasting harm. Violence was to be a last resort, though it was a possibility. Certain Operation Reunion members carried firearms. I didn’t know how to use a gun, but I didn’t have to. They would teach me later. For now, I had to help get the children out as quickly as possible.
We scrambled for the entrance closest to us, the backdoor of the building, while other operatives poured through the front. After days of reviewing the layout and plan of attack, everything was mapped out in my mind.
Up the stairs to the second and third floors, which was where all the children should be preparing for bed. Step over anyone writhing on the first floor between us and the stairs. They would recover from the temporary blindness and ringing in their ears, but not before we fled. Rush up the stairs, let Carter reassure the children, and then liberate them from the awful environment.
Everything passed in a rush of sound and light, and tears. So many tears from the younger ones. Babies and toddlers crying, their faces bright red and blotchy with misery. I just hoped their reactions were temporary, as well, the result of the shock of the moment. We had something better to offer them. Bereft parents waiting beyond the wall. The knowledge that we could bring families back together kept me moving forward.
As we herded the children from the topmost floor down the stairwells, one of the boys in front of me cried out, “Where’s Maya? Where’s my sister?”
I glanced at Carter, meeting his own wide-eyed gaze. We couldn’t leave anyone behind. Not if we could help it.
“I’ll go back,” I volunteered, and turned to race back up the stairs before he could stop me.
The girls’ rooms on the third floor were to the right, the boys’ quarters to the left. I hurried along the corridor, calling out for Maya, whoever she was. Maybe she’d already been hustled out with the rest of the group, but I had to be sure. Carter had already cautioned us that a final sweep wouldn’t be possible. We had to get in and out, but I couldn’t in good conscience leave a child behind.
There was movement out of the corner of my eye and I whipped around to look inside the room to my right. Crouched in a corner, between a twin-sized bed and the exterior wall, was a little blonde-haired girl. I wasn’t the best judge of age, but she couldn’t have been more than four-years-old.
I held my hand out to her. “Are you Maya?”
She looked at me with wide blue eyes and nodded.
“Your brother is looking for you. Do you want to go to him?” I hoped I sounded reassuring, though I was sure my voice quavered with fear.
She gave another nod and then locked her fearful gaze on my hand. Seeing so much terror in such a young child broke my heart in two. She and her brother deserved better than this.
“Come on. I’ll take you to him,” I coaxed.
At last, she showed some glimmer of trust when she reached toward me with both arms. Emboldened, I crossed the room and picked her up, settled her on my hip, and turned back toward the door.
A gunshot rang out downstairs, a sound I’d only ever heard on television. Maya tensed in my arms and buried her face against my neck. I sucked in a breath, intent on not showing any fear. “Hush, it’s okay,” I told her as I hurried out of the room.
I took the stairs as fast as I dared with the little girl clinging to me. At the very bottom, on the first floor, a man stared up at me with unblinking eyes. Blood trickled from his mouth, onto his pristine white government uniform. And that’s when I knew...
Oh god, I knew one of my own had done this to him.
There was a gun on the floor next to his limp hand. He must have been shot in self-defense. At least, that’s what I hoped as I stepped around him and rushed toward the exit. I’d tried to prepare myself to accept the possibility of death, but there was a difference between knowing it was possible and seeing it with my own eyes. I couldn’t bear for Maya to see this. I was here to save her, not cause her even more shock and trauma.
“Stand down!” The shout came from directly in front of me and I lifted my gaze to the guardsman standing between me and the exit. He held a pistol with both hands, aimed at my face.
My entire body went numb with fear. Were the people I’d come here with just beyond those doors, also held at gunpoint? What about the children?
I tightened my arms around Maya. Her small form quivered against me, and I wondered if she would ever recover from this night. Guilt sliced through me like a knife.
If we hadn’t done this, these children would be tucked in their beds, drifting off to sleep. Maybe tomorrow would have been bleak for them, but it wouldn’t have been this. Thunderclaps and blazing light and men yelling. This was the stuff of nightmares.
Someone nudged up beside me and then two gloved hands reached for Maya. I didn’t want to surrender her, but I knew I had no choice. The guardsman who took her spoke soothingly and then they were gone.
At least they were being kind to her. I hoped that she would continue to receive kindness and reassurance, until...
Until what? Until, against all odds, she could be reunited with her brother and any family beyond the wall? I scoffed at my own hope, hope that was dashed at my feet in the form of a dead man.
“Put your hands up!” the guardsman in front of me commanded.
I raised both arms high in the air and waited for the inevitable bite of handcuffs around my wrists. It was something I’d never experienced but, when it came, at least I was braced for it. More so than seeing a fresh body, anyway.
They weren’t gentle as they checked my black pants and black sweatshirt for hidden weapons. I’d never been handled by anyone, let alone shoved against a wall and then roughly patted down from collar to shoes.
Nor did they talk to me the way they’d spoken to Maya. Every hateful, commanding word out of their mouths let me know exactly how they saw me. As a criminal. I was told to shut the fuck up and not move, called Separatist scum and a murderer.
I couldn’t blame them for doing their job, because they were right. I had violated the law.
The difference was, the laws were wrong.
Weren’t they?
THE ROOM WHERE I SAT looked nothing like I’d expected because, for some odd reason, they hadn’t taken me to the guard precinct. They’d taken me to the capitol building with all its stark, sprawling architecture. A complex of glass and marble that looked impressive, both inside and out. As a child, I’d visited it once or twice on field trips. Most grade schoolers did, the tours meant to teach us to value and love our government.
I flexed my now-free hands against the arms of the leather chair. Since being arrested, I hadn’t spoken a word, except to give my name and address. Years of good girl behavior reasserted itself in those fleeting, terrifying moments. However, so had rational thought. The more I said, the more they could use against me and Operation Reunion.
I had to defer to the guardsmen, let them know I wasn’t a threat. But that was where my cooperation ended. I couldn't, in good conscience, assure them of my loyalty when I had none. That wasn’t a charade I was up for playing. Nor would I answer their questions about our base of operations, how many people had participated tonight, or their names. Years of sitting alone on the bus, silent and focused and intent on avoiding attention, made it easy to ignore those questions.
“Ms. Neville.” The voice that spoke my name was smooth as silk and more familiar than I cared to acknowledge.
When I lifted my gaze, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Governor Ellery himself had walked into the room and now stood opposite me, one hand extended. He looked younger than I’d expected, his eyes and hair dark, with just a bit of gray at the temples. When he appeared on television, he always wore a pressed, black suit, white shirt, and blue tie. Despite the late hour, he didn’t look rumpled. Just casual in black pants and a white button-down shirt.
“I’m your great-uncle, Victor.”
I blinked at his smooth, unlined face, and then at the hand he expected me to shake. Was he serious? I had to lean forward to accept the handshake and, for a split second, my body did just that.
Then I pulled back and blinked at him again. “This is news to me.” It wasn’t the sassiest or wittiest response. It wasn’t the truth, either, but maybe it would let him know how I felt.
“Is it? Well, I suppose Audrey was always one for keeping her secrets. It looks like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Like mother, like daughter, and all those clichés.” He smiled down at me, though it wasn’t a particularly friendly smile, and allowed me to process his remarks.
Audrey. My mother. Of course, I’d never called her that, and hearing the governor say her name with such familiarity was even stranger. I hoped to never hear him say her name again.
“We have many things to discuss, Kira. First, I’d like to let you know that the young lady you so generously returned to us has been moved to another home for processing. She’ll be fine, despite that stunt you tried to pull tonight.”
I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat. That sounded ominous.
“Why don’t you let us know where we can find her brother and the rest of the children, so they can get the care they need.” He crouched in front of me, like someone might if speaking to a toddler. The tension in his posture, however, told a different story.
He wanted information, but I still wasn’t about to give it. No matter how much it’d been drilled into me to respect the governor—family or not—I refused to betray my friends or the cause I believed in.
The governor tipped his head to one side, the same smile still plastered on his unnaturally youthful face. “Okay, then, maybe I should ask little Maya what she heard, what you told her.”
My mind reeled back through the events of the night. There was nothing that I’d said that would give the operation away, and I wasn’t going to let this man trick me into thinking otherwise.
Vi came to mind. Her calm, cool demeanor. I had to be like her.
“Do you know what happens to lawbreakers in this capitol?” He was still crouching in front of me, seemingly tireless in his pursuit of information.
I nodded. I knew more of it now than I ever had in school. The reconditioning, the suicides, the fact that there might actually be life outside the Commonwealth. Perhaps that was the one thing that gave me hope as his gaze bored into mine.
“Good.” He finally unfolded himself and rose to his full height. “This was the most serious first offense I’ve seen in a long time and, by law, you should be reconditioned without delay.”
I held my breath. That would be a death sentence, one carried out by my own hand when my broken mind couldn’t take living another day. Harsh, true, but also what I’d learned to expect from the governor. I waited for him to continue.
“However, you will be remanded to your parents for custody. Only your lineage saves you from reconditioning this time, Kira. Nothing more. If not for that, I would gladly watch you burn, and I may yet have that pleasure. I can always charge you with the murder of the home’s caretaker, after all. No one will know the difference, since everyone else involved fled. You better hope they are well beyond the wall, where death will come much more quickly.”
He was watching me closely and I hoped my face didn’t give away any of my thoughts. My fear for the people I’d chosen to ally myself with, rather than accepting the Tenets. My worry for my parents. My sudden yearning to know what would happen if I passed through that seemingly impenetrable barrier that kept us imprisoned in the Commonwealth.
After another moment, he turned from me, scoffed, “Such a disappointment, like the rest of the family,” and stalked out of the room.
I let out a breath and forced my shoulders to relax. Whatever cat-and-mouse game he’d been trying to play with me had failed.
I hoped.