Elite (Citizen Saga, Book 1) (23 page)

I couldn't believe my ears. But then, I shouldn't have been surprised at all. Lena had been betrothed to Cardinal Chew-wen Wang Chao all along, and still she had kissed me. Like all Elite, she'd simply been doing what she needed to do to survive. To stay on top. To not admit defeat.

Which made me wonder if that was what she was doing now. But I dismissed the idea as I watched Wang Chao wrap an arm around her shoulders and lay a kiss in amongst her hair, relief and pride mixing on his austere face. She didn't pull away.

But then she didn't lean into him either.

Damn it. Why was I still defending her when she'd just agreed to hand me over to Chew-wen?

"I have a condition, of course," she declared, after the men had stopped thumping their own backs.

"A what?" Wang Chao inarticulately asked, as Chew-wen said, "I hardly think you in a position to ask favours."

"But of course, General," Lena purred, making Alan cover a snort off to my side. I glared at him, but he only shrugged his shoulders, a darker shadow in the dark recesses of the room.

The signal hadn't come through from Si yet, we were biding our time while we watched our lives being sold out by an Elite we'd willingly allowed into the safety of the hub.

Of course, responsibility for that all lay at my feet.

"You require my help to contain the rebels. I'm inclined to agree with their cause right now," she admitted, and I stupidly felt my lips spreading in a triumphant smile.

"Admitting that hardly aids you," Chew-wen advised.

"I have no doubt," she replied pleasantly, Elite mannerisms in full swing, "that my freedom no longer exists."

Chew-wen slowly acknowledged that point with a nod of his head.

"The threats you hold over me are ones I cannot counter," she added, and my eyes slid to the forms of Aiko and Lee Tan, barely conscious on the floor.

Everything she did, she did for them, I realised. The last of what she considered her family.

I wondered if we could save them, but chances were we wouldn't be able to save ourselves.

"Go on," Chew-wen encouraged.

"Keep them alive and I'll co-operate," she advised, and I swear there was a scratch in her throat, a roughness to the usually velvety smooth tone of her voice.

"I can wipe them after the fact," he pointed out.

She offered a small smile.

"But you'll never know just how much I have uncovered," she whispered.

Chew-wen leaned forward in his chair. "You have met more of them than just Masters?"

"Perhaps."

Oh, this was bad. A part of me had hoped she'd just sink me and leave the rest, but the news I was the son of the man who killed her father clearly had cut her deep. She was out for revenge. My father had taken everything from her, left her alone. I had a terrible suspicion she was about to do the same to me.

Chew-wen's eyes met those of his son. A silent message passed between them. I couldn't see Wang Chao's reaction, but his back stiffened, his fists clenched. And then he nodded his head, accepting whatever nefarious task his father had set him.

"Very well, Honourable Selena Carstairs," Chew-wen replied. "We'll see just how long you last."

He stood then and panic seized me. I flicked a worried glance at Alan who pressed a hand to the side of his head, murmuring an update to Si through the earpiece.

Time seemed to stall as I watched Wang Chao wrap a firm hand around Lena's upper arm, like he had when they first stormed in here after General Chew-wen. He started to drag her towards a door at the back of the room, drones parting to allow them access.

Selena called out to her friends on the floor, but they didn't respond. Not even a sound as drones picked them up and began to move them to another door.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"They will live," Chew-wen announced. "As long as you cooperate." But there was an ominous threat in his tone that didn't match the reassuring words. Again his eyes flicked to his son's, but this time I could see Wang Chao's face.

Stoic, determined, angry, and full of regret.

"Oh, fuck," I whispered, and Alan raised his hand, fingers outstretched.

I alternated between watching Lena get dragged off to her fate and Alan as he counted down silently, lowering fingers to match the second hands on a clock.

Wang Chao reached the back door to the room, just as Chew-wen's drones opened the main exit for the Chief Overseer. And Alan's last finger came down.

For a second I wondered if anything had happened.

And then all hell broke loose, and my world came tumbling down.

I didn't want to think of what Chew-wen had ordered his son to do to me. I only knew Wang Chao was beside himself having to follow the command.

It did nothing to ease my mind that his instructions upset him. The feeling of being trapped had escalated to one of being held at gunpoint and staring at my imminent death.

Not that death was going to be an option for me. But there are worse things than death, I've been told.

A crackle sounded out over the nearest drone's radio, a sound I realised I hadn't heard all night. Most drones communicated via the old school sounding radio channels. Tonight I had heard only drones themselves and their Shiloh units, nothing else.

But this crackle preceded a barked radio command, clearly coming from off site and not at the Palace.

"We have them!" a Cardinal exclaimed, his informal language proving he was human and not machine. "An address in
Rahee
. No, correction," he added, excitement making his words tumble one over the other. "Make that
Tehteh
. They're at
Tehteh
. Repeat: Rebel base at
Tehteh
."

Oh, no.

The whole room stopped. Wang Chao's grip on my arm weakening, the drones nearest us buzzing in a way I had never seen nor heard before now.

"The file?" Wang Chao asked, my eyes flicked up to his face and then just as swiftly to his father's across the room.

"I told you they had it."

Yes, they did. Because of me.

"You'd think they would have suspected the trap," Wang Chao offered.

"There were two. One hidden behind the other," his father explained, walking back into the room, the door closing behind him.

The drones still buzzed, an electrical sound as though their power units were about to fry themselves out. I'd never heard of one doing that before. But regardless, the noise was... creepy.

"We need more men!" the Cardinal over the radio exclaimed. "They're scattering."

"Sending assistance," Shiloh announced from the drone standing beside Chew-wen. Even the General jumped slightly at the unexpected command.

"How many?" he asked the drone.

It was Shiloh who answered, making uneasy fear trickle down my spine.

Shiloh should not have answered. The question was outside a Shiloh unit's parameters. What exactly had Chew-wen done?

"One hundred drones from the Palace," she declared. A number that surely meant only those in the room were left.

"For such a small rebel group?" Chew-wen queried.

"The base must be destroyed," Shiloh advised. "All hope lost."

"Good thinking," Chew-wen agreed, making me blink in shock at his easy acquiescence.

Who was in charge of Wánměi? The Chief Overseer or Shiloh, a computer programme?

"So you see, my dear," The General said, lifting amused and victorious eyes to my face. "We no longer need your intel."

His hand waved out in a casual move I failed to interpret.

The flash of a laser gun being fired sent a scream from the depths of my chest. My legs buckled, as I spun towards Aiko and Tan, expecting to see one of them already dead.

Instead Zikri emerged from the shadows and eliminated a second drone with the flash of his laser gun.

Bullets and light beams flowed after that. Wang Chao throwing me to the ground while he pulled his own service weapon. The acrid stench of gunpowder mixed with the electrical burn of lasers on the air. Glass shattered, wood splintered, shouts and groans and curses drowned out my cry for Aiko and Tan.

I didn't dare stop to see who else was here with the rebel, my need to get to my defenceless friends was overriding. But as I scampered past overturned armchairs, crawled through broken shards of glass, and hid behind flying feathers from a burst cushion on a nearby couch, I spotted him.

Hand to hand with Wang Chao.

For a second I paused, unable to take my eyes off the sight of Trent throwing a fist at a Cardinal. At Wang Chao returning the gesture with equal, brutal force. Both men well trained at hand to hand combat. Both men not holding back in the slightest.

Blood splattered, bones surely broke, and the only sound they made was the odd grunt as air was forced from their lungs. A drone tried to intervene, assisting Wang Chao when Trent managed to land a particularly good shot to the side of his head. Wang Chao stumbled and the drone stepped in. Only to be brought to its knees by Zikri.

For a moment, I saw them winning. The drone numbers in the room halved, no more drones arriving at Shiloh's command, all of them currently on their way to the hub. What was happening there was anyone's guess, but right now we were winning, and hope had returned.

I moved forward towards where Aiko and Tan lay untouched, somehow avoiding all the mayhem and destruction in the room. Believing I'd reach them. Sure the rebels had everyone contained. But right before I made their sides, a drone came out of nowhere and leaned down, simply scooping Aiko up, then started walking away into the melee following the shouted commands of General Chew-wen.

"That's it. She'll follow," he yelled, as Shiloh replied from the drone's speakers calmly, in her high
Anglisc
accented voice, "I can bring the other as well."

"No need. One will suffice," Chew-wen explained and then ducked through the door at the rear of the room.

I sat stunned, half crouched, half crawling, just a few feet away. Loud noises surrounded me, chunks of plaster rained down on top of me, chips of tiles shot up like lethal projectiles at me, and all I felt was utter despair. The last image I'd have of Aiko was in a machine's arms.

I forced myself to move, harder than it sounds, but managed to reach Tan's side, panic making my limbs shake and my breath saw in and out of my lungs. My fingers fluttered over his ashen features for a moment, his eyes wide and unseeing.

"No," I groaned, finally finding the courage to touch him, only to have his eyelids blink. "Fucking hell," I swore in a very non-model-like fashion. "You're alive."

"Aiko," he slurred and then promptly fell unconscious again.

My gaze lifted across the room, drones battling Alan and Damia, Zikri firing from God knows where, and Trent defending against a rapid onslaught of punches from Wang Chao. Utter chaos. Death and destruction on all of their minds. So foreign to what I'd been brought up amongst. So alien despite my night time illegal pursuits. I wasn't cut out for this. I was Elite born and bred. I didn't have the skills to fight for my life like this.

And then I heard her scream. A pain-filled hideous sound.

I was up and on my feet, skirt hem gripped in my hands, as I ran and dodged and skipped out of the way of stumbling drones. Something splattered against my cheek. I lifted a hand to rub it, my fingers coming away covered in red. Drones don't bleed, so I had to assume it was human. But a rebel or Wang Chao?

I reached the door at the back of the room, my heart in my throat, adrenaline flushing my veins, fear a constant companion now, just as the main entrance was thrown open by a blast. I hadn't realised it had been locked, and I'd forgotten the Cardinals themselves. Shiloh may have sent drones to
Tehteh
, but she hadn't bothered with Cardinal humans. Her oversight would be our downfall, and I instinctively knew it hadn't been her plan.

There was something about the Shiloh I met tonight that chilled me. But I didn't have time to discover exactly what. The room was swarmed by armed Cardinals, voices raised in clipped commands, their red cloaks flying out behind them; streaks of blood-like crimson on the air. Light glinted off the polished metal of their guns, the chaos swiftly becoming a war zone as I impotently watched one fire off a shot at Damia's head.

So quick. So unavoidable.

The girl went down without making a sound, but Zikri screamed a challenge. Laser lights lit up the room, Trent and Alan throwing themselves immediately to the floor. Wang Chao followed, as soon as the laser's beam clipped his shoulder and he realised just what Zikri was doing.

For a second I stood stunned, outlined in the doorway by the light show before my eyes. Trent was yelling at me, waving his hands frantically to get me to duck, but my eyes were on Damia's brother. As he spun and spun his finger continuously pressed on the trigger of his stolen sPol laser gun.

Laser guns require time to recharge. One of two things can happen if you don't allow them a rest between firing.

They fry themselves and splutter out.

Or they fry themselves and explode.

I watched as Zikri sought revenge for his sister's death, taking down the Cardinals who had stormed the room, as well as any more who tempted fate and entered at their backs. And along with those of the drones that hadn't moved for shelter yet.

I couldn't look away, even though the laser beam kept returning to my side of the room. I managed to duck once, bringing myself below the line of fire, but still I couldn't retreat further. The anger and heartache that shone on his face, so naked and raw and pleading. He knew he couldn't bring his sister back, just like I'd known my father wasn't returning home the night of the Uprising.

I saw in him my pain and anguish. I saw in him every single Wánměi Citizen's agony and fear at a friend being wiped. I saw the face of a nation rebelling and I willed him on, even as the first signs of his weapon misfiring caught my eye.

I held my breath, I prayed for their souls, and watched right until the end.

The explosion reverberated in my ears, sending me sideways, making my shoulder hit the door frame and my head whack against the door itself as it swung with the pressure of the detonation. Dust and debris showered down on us, making it hard to breathe and impossible to see. I gingerly sat up, too soon, the world swam.

And when I went to reach out to get my balance I came in contact with cool steel.

I knew instantly what it was, but before my hand had withdrawn a mechanical clamp surrounded my wrist and I was hauled painfully through the opening into the relatively clean air of the back room.

Stars burst before my eyes, ringing so loud I cringed resounded inside my head, and all I could manage as I was thrown to the ground at General Chew-wen's feet was a huff of non-existent air. I struggled to breathe, ignoring the booted foot that landed painfully on my back forcing me to face plant into the marble tiles.

It was several long seconds before I could see Aiko lying on her side next to me, a drone hand fastened around her slender neck. Her eyelids were closed, bruises marred her once beautiful face, a cut bled freely on her swollen lip, and her luscious hair had been hacked off ready for wiping.

"Watch while she dies, Selena," Chew-wen growled in my ear, and I wondered how long he'd been repeating himself. I jerked beneath his foot, letting him know my hearing had returned, and then watched as the drone started to tighten his grip and Aiko opened her eyes.

Big pools of melted chocolate blinked back at me, complacency replaced with utter terror. Her body spasmed, the first sign of hypoxia; he'd been denying her oxygen for a while.

"I'm sorry," I whimpered, stretching out a hand for my friend. Chew-wen applied more pressure on my back with his boot, making it impossible to reach her. A gaping hole took up residence in my chest, matching the vast divide between our bodies. "I'm so sorry," I added, an ineffectual apology drowning in guilt and tears.

Fear made it impossible for her to smile, but I saw a shadow of the woman I had come to love. Her eyes held mine, as her face turned evermore blue. The look in them all forgiveness.

"No!" I sobbed, my voice a pathetic sound coming from a broken vessel. "No," I whispered, as beautiful, vibrant life finally retreated from her eyes.

Chew-wen left me there, staring into the vacant windows to Aiko's soul. Staring into the shell that had once been my closest friend. His foot had been removed. The drone who had killed Aiko now standing guard at the door. No one close enough to see the shard of glass I gripped in my hand.

I felt broken and battered. Part of me beaten and defeated. It took long minutes for me to consciously think. Just a seething mass of raw emotion inside. Pain and agony and aching loss.

Until the glass shard bit into the skin of my palm and life flooded into me once again.

I knew attacking the drone would be useless. Besides he'd been following a command. An order that came from Chew-wen, despite Shiloh acting on her own more than once tonight.

But glass against a human was lethal. So I covered it in my palm, feeling the cut in my skin deepen and blood begin to trickle. Then I sucked in a shattering breath, prayed my father was watching over me, and crawled on my stomach towards the man who was meant to be my guardian.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, but the silence in the room as he watched my approach allowed him to hear. "Please don't kill me too," I whimpered. "I'll do whatever you say. I promise. I know I was wrong now. I know they were wrong. Please help me."

I reached up a pleading hand, the one not holding the glass shard, and stared into dispassionate, hard eyes.