Shudder (Stitch Trilogy, Book 2) (25 page)

“
Oh, yeah,” Alessa replied
quickly. She cursed to herself – she was really terrible at hiding
her emotions. “It’s just… weird to be back,” she lied. Well, it was
partially true – it was weird knowing it’d be her last visit, at
least.

Isaac smiled in understanding. “I
know.” He scrambled across the ditch to the thicket where they’d
found the supply packs left for them by the rebels so many weeks
before. “Regina’s letter said we’d find a way to contact her
here…”

“
See anything?” Alessa
asked.

Isaac dug around in the branches for a
moment before pulling out a fist-sized box. “Something!” Isaac
shouted, holding up the box. He skittered down the loose rock
lining the ditch and bounded up the other side, holding the box out
to Alessa. “See what’s inside.”

She took it in her hands – it was
heavy for its size. Popping open the lid, she found a mass of
tangled wires and electrical parts connecting a large battery to a
single button.

“
Is it… some kind of
transmitter?” Isaac guessed, peering over her shoulder at the
contents of the box. “But what do we do with it?”

“
Look.” Alessa pointed at
the inside of the lid, where a note was scrawled in a messy hand.
“Punch in the knock code, then wait,” she read.

“
The knock code? Like when
we used to go to meetings?”

Alessa shrugged. “I don’t know what
else they could be referring to…”

“
But we haven’t been to a
meeting in, what, a year? Almost a year and a half? They change the
codes all the time – how are we supposed to know what the latest
one is?”

Alessa thought for a moment. “Maybe
that’s the point – the only way they’ll know it’s us is if we use
the code that was active when we were captured that fall. Do you
remember it?”

“
I’m pretty sure it was
like this,” he knocked a pattern against the side of the
box.

“
Sounds right. Do
it.”

“
You think this button is
like a morse code transmitter or something? That it will send the
pattern to Regina to let her know we’re back?”

“
I hope so…” She
considered. “I mean, it could be a trap. But there’s really no way
to find out except to try, right?”

“
Right. Okay, here goes
nothing.” Isaac tapped the code out on the button. “Now
what?”

“
Now we wait.”

The afternoon turned to dusk and then
to dark. Isaac and Alessa had resumed their old vantage point
sitting on the hill overlooking the sewer, passing the hours
sharing snacks from their bags and watching the sun set over the
high walls of Paragon to the west.

There’d been no movement near the
drain, no sign of anyone coming to meet them. Alessa was beginning
to worry.

Isaac was working his way through his
sixth granola bar in as many hours, crumpling the wrapper back into
Alessa’s bag. It was their last one. “Well, I’m glad you had the
foresight to pack all these.”

“
I’m glad you’re enjoying
them,” Alessa replied. She tried to smile, but couldn’t get her
lips to cooperate. Oh well. The moonless night was so dim, Isaac
couldn’t see her expression anyway.

She felt a sudden jab in her lower
back.

“
Ow! Isaac, what are you
doing?” she swatted her hand at whatever he was sticking her
with.

He grabbed her fingers and yanked her
arm tight behind her, then somehow in one swift motion she was flat
on her back, leaves and dirt crunching under her hair, an elbow dug
deep into her free arm to restrain it. She fought to sit up and
couldn’t, and when she went to yell, a hand clamped down over her
mouth. That’s when she realized it wasn’t Isaac holding
her.

Panic bursting in her chest, Alessa
peered up at the dark narrow almond eyes boring into her own.
“Shh…” a female voice whispered.

To her left, Alessa could just barely
make out Isaac in her peripheral vision, bound in the same
position. And then she heard a rumbling laugh.

“
Isaac, my man! It
is
you. Are you a sight
for sore eyes or what?” There was a flurry of activity to that side
as the man released Isaac.

“
Sorry, Alessa,” the
female voice intoned as the pressure on Alessa’s body released.
“Just had to be sure.”

Alessa sat up quickly, turning to face
her assailant while scrambling away. The woman who’d been holding
her switched on a faint light.

“
Sato!” Alessa’s tension
faded as she was flooded instead with relief. She hadn’t realized
how good it would feel to see a familiar face, even the usually
grim rebel mechanic.

Sato shot a rare smile back at Alessa,
brushing her dark, straight bangs from her face with a tattoo-laden
hand. “It’s good to see you,” she added, her voice as serious as
ever.

Isaac was engaged in a back-slapping
embrace with the tan-skinned, well-built man that Alessa recognized
as Carlos, the rebels’ head of militia.

“
Making enough noise with
those snack bags, you think?” Carlos joked. “We didn’t even have to
muffle our steps sneaking up on you. Rookie.” He gave Isaac a
good-natured shove. “Alessa,” he smiled in her direction. “Come
’ere.”

Alessa got to her feet and stepped
forward to give Carlos a hug. He wasn’t any taller than she was,
but she still felt small in his thick, brawny arms.

Over her shoulder, she heard Isaac
greeting Sato. “Sato, great to see you. How is everyone? How’s
Alicia?”

Alicia was Sato’s partner, another
high-ranking rebel official and leader of their medical
team.

“
She’s good,” Sato replied
reassuringly, “Everyone’s good.”

“
Janie?” he asked
quietly.

Sato hesitated. “I’ll let Regina fill
you in.”

Alessa’s heart dropped in her chest.
She released Carlos and turned to Sato, grabbing her forearm.
“Sato. What’s happened to Janie?”

“
Nothing,” Sato
retorted.

“
Sato, don’t mess with me.
Not about this.” Alessa was a little tentative about threatening
the tough, sinewy mechanic, but she wasn’t about to let this go.
The only reason she’d even left Paragon was because Regina had made
it sound like Janie would be safe. Now two months later she was
learning that might never have been the case.

“
Well, nothing we know of
for sure,” Sato admitted under Alessa’s stony glare. “We haven’t
heard from her since you left.”

The breaths came quickly
now as Alessa processed this information. Why was she
not
surprised at this
turn of events? “I thought you guys had a plan to get her out,”
Alessa accused.

“
We did,” Sato protested.
“But something happened and Janie never showed up at the meeting
point.”

Sato stepped toward Alessa and put a
hand on her shoulder, an unusually earnest gesture which Alessa
knew wasn’t easy for Sato to make.

“
I’m sorry, I wish I had
more to tell you. Let’s just go find Regina – she’ll explain
everything.”

Regina, Alessa grumbled. Of
course.

28. HOMECOMING

Alessa and Isaac followed Carlos and
Sato back through the woods into another sewer opening. Ten minutes
of slogging through the dank, winding tunnels led to an open grate
outside a long low building in a dark part of the compound that
Alessa didn’t recognize.

Carlos climbed out onto the street
first, checking that the area was clear before he motioned for the
others to follow. They scurried behind him into the shadows of an
alley, where he rapped another pattern onto the door. “Regina’s
been hiding here ever since Lizzie was captured again, just before
your drama,” he explained. “This part of the city is pretty much
abandoned except for the occasional patrol – it’s actually blocked
off at street level, but luckily the sewers are still accessible.
Regina’s been able to lay low and direct the rebellion from here,
switching to a new building every few weeks to be safe.” He tapped
the same pattern lightly on the door once more. “You heard the
code?”

Alessa and Isaac nodded their assent –
they remembered the protocol. In fact, Alessa had taken note of the
knock code the first time Carlos did it. She’d always been good at
following the rules – though that was about to change once she
found her sister, she seethed.

Inside, a weary-looking soldier guided
them through dim hallways to a wide basement room where Regina sat
waiting for them. Carlos and Sato left them at the door.

“
Isaac, Alessa,” Regina
smiled, the grays in her cropped hair glinting in the harsh
fluorescent light. “It’s good to see you both.”

Unfortunately, Alessa’s feelings were
less than warm at the moment. “Regina, where is my sister?” she
demanded. Isaac squeezed her hand in warning, but Alessa didn’t
care anymore what any of them thought of her. She wanted
answers.

Regina sighed, her shoulders heavy.
“Sit down, Alessa. I’ll explain whatever I can.”

Isaac and Alessa settled into the
stiff folding chairs across from Regina and waited for an
explanation.

“
I’ll be honest with you,”
Regina began. “We don’t know where Janie – or Lizzie, for that
matter – is.”

Alessa looked away, shaking her head
with her lips drawn tight, but Regina reached out to her, wrapping
her bony fingers around Alessa’s wrist. “Alessa, don’t jump to
conclusions. They may be all right yet.”

Alessa got the impression that Regina
was trying to convince herself as much as Alessa. Lizzie was, after
all, Regina’s daughter – and Lizzie had suffered far more under the
Ruling Class than any of them had. Alessa felt a sudden twang of
guilt. Of course Regina was doing everything she could.

Regina let her arm go when she saw
that Alessa had relaxed. “We lost contact with my mole inside the
producers the same day that you escaped. He was the one who was
supposed to meet Janie, and Lizzie. We’re not sure if he betrayed
us, or if he was captured, or if he’s even alive.” She sighed a
long breath.

“
We’ve been using our
contacts in the different efficiency units to keep an eye on the
dramas, waiting to see if either Janie or Lizzie have reappeared,
but so far there’s been nothing. It hasn’t been that long, though.
They might still be in the prison waiting for another
assignment.”

“
So why haven’t you gone
in looking for them?” Alessa challenged, more gently than before.
“It’s been two months. I thought you were keeping her safe.” Alessa
bit back the tears pressing at her eyes.

“
I’m sorry, Alessa. Truly,
I am. Janie’s as important to me – to our cause – as anyone. And
Lizzie, well… she’s my Lizzie. I want them both back. We’ve had to
be more cautious lately – Paragon’s been on high alert since your
escape. That doesn’t mean we did nothing, though. We
are
looking for
them.”

Isaac finally spoke up. “And… what
have you found?” Alessa could tell from his tone that he was trying
to be respectful, but he was still anxious on Alessa’s
behalf.

“
We have a new recruit,”
Regina responded. “A guard within the prison system. He was afraid
of something he saw at the prison, some kind of grisly attack that
left two of his comrades dead. He wanted us to get him out. So he
agreed to spy for us, and in exchange we’re going to extract him
when we head to the new base – assuming you’ve found
one…”

Regina risked a glance at Isaac and he
nodded. Alessa could see the relief on her face as she continued.
She could tell Regina had more questions, but she let them go for
the moment.

“
The guard hasn’t seen any
sign of Lizzie or Janie, unfortunately.”

Alessa made to interject, but Regina
put her hand up.

“
Again, that doesn’t
necessarily mean anything. He only works in the main cell blocks.
At least the information we’ve gotten from him narrows our search
down to the solitary wing and the attached medical
facility.”

“
That’s still a lot of
ground to cover,” Isaac interposed.

“
I know,” Regina
acknowledged. “But we have a plan, now that you’re
back.”

Of course she did, Alessa thought to
herself. Regina always had a plan. And once again, Alessa had no
choice but to participate in it, if she had any chance of seeing
her sister again.

“
But that’s for another
night. I can see you’re exhausted, and this is not the homecoming
you were hoping for. Alessa, Michael can show you to your room.”
Alessa looked up and noticed that Michael, a doughy middle-aged man
– another of Regina’s inner circle – had stepped into the
room.

Alessa and Isaac stood to go, but
Regina called Isaac back. “Isaac, if you don’t mind, I’d like to
hear a little more about what you found before you join Alessa.
Before we get the rebels out of here, I need to know if it’s
actually safe. I’d like to hear what you think.”

There was no sense in arguing, Alessa
knew. Isaac would want to complete their mission by filling Regina
in on the details, and Alessa didn’t have the patience to sit
through it right now. She followed Michael out without a
word.