Emerge (22 page)

Justin glanced sideways at West. “Fine. But it’s late. It can wait until morning. We’ll have tested Dax for Bad Sam and decontaminated him by then. I’ll be back first thing to have breakfast with you and your mother.”

At that, Justin left. And West simply stood there staring at me.

I let out a breath I’d been holding. I had to believe that Dax would be okay.

“Did you mean what you said in your note?” West asked. His brown hair was disheveled; this had been a very long, tiring day for him as well.

“What?” My voice was barely above a whisper as I thought back to every single word I’d written to him. Of course I had meant it.

“Did you mean what you wrote to me? That in another life you would have loved that I had found you?”

“Why are you asking this?” I averted my gaze, looking toward the windows on the far side of the room—looking for an escape. I couldn’t tell him what I was feeling. That I craved the feeling of his arms around me. That I had actually slept more soundly that one frigid night in the forest than I had in years.

I took a deep breath and turned my eyes back to his. Hazel in color, his irises were outlined in black. His clothes, dark with significance, brought out the brilliance of his eyes. And right now, those eyes were pleading with me.
 

“In another life… we would have had a chance,” I said.

“We have a chance now.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What are you talking about?”

West grabbed my elbow and pulled me down the hallway with a sense of urgency, but not in a scary way. He passed the guest room and led me through the door to his bedroom. After closing the door, he walked quickly to his bedside table and picked up what looked like some sort of remote control. He pushed a few buttons, and music poured out of speakers in two high corners of the room.

Then he walked toward me and leaned in close to my ear, his breath hot across my cheek. “They’re listening to our every word, but the music will drown out our voices if we whisper.”

I glanced up at him as his fingers circled around my wrist. “Is Dax okay?”

“He’ll be fine. Justin is scared about something, but I don’t know what. I found him having a serious conversation with Dr. Pooley earlier. You haven’t met him, yet. He represents the medical sector on the council, and is Willow’s doctor. They were examining the box you brought. The one with the clock on it.”

I tried to pull back, but West held on tight. His other hand slid to the small of my back, pressing firmly and bringing my body closer, if that was possible. “I need you to be honest with me,” he whispered. “What is that box? And does it have anything to do with what Dax was talking about?”

I decided it was time to play my hand, to find out just who West really was and what I truly meant to him. One way or the other, my insurance policy was in place. I’d either have West’s help, or I wouldn’t.

I tilted my head back so that I could see his eyes. Though I knew eyes could lie, it was unlikely that I would misread the initial reaction on his face. “The mechanism that Dax is reporting as ‘in place’… It’s a bomb. The timer is the countdown.”

West’s face remained stoic at first. His eyes widened just slightly, then his cheeks dropped a bit. “What do you mean? It’s obviously too small to do too much damage.”

“It’s not that kind of bomb.”

“What kind of bomb is it, then?” I studied Cricket’s face, looking for any clue as to what she was plotting. But as her eyes remained fixed on mine, unchanging, I suspected that I—and even more so, Justin—had underestimated the people surviving outside of New Caelum. I knew for certain that I had underestimated Cricket’s ability to take care of herself once she got inside my city.

“If I’m not released from New Caelum before that clock hits zero, your computerized air purification system will be disabled, and several vials of the virus will be released into your ventilation system—into the air your people breathe.” Cricket looked down at my hand on her arm, then back at me, her gaze severe.

I didn’t realize until that moment that I had a monstrous grip around her elbow. I let my fingers slip away, but kept my hand pressed to the small of her back, not wanting to let her go. “How could you possibly have built a bomb that would do that?”

Cricket explained the sophisticated bomb and computer virus that was designed to cripple New Caelum, and how she and Zara had used our own state-of-the art system to do it. I wasn’t sure if I was angry or turned on by her tenacious self-preservation strategy, but the heat building beneath my palm on her back didn’t do anything to calm the blood flowing through my veins. She was threatening to kill the very people my mom aimed to protect—people
I
was meant to protect.

“Say something,” she said. Her voice echoed through what seemed like a long underground tunnel.

My mind raced around the many scenarios. Was she insane? “Are you so angry about being forced to live outside of New Caelum that you want everyone inside New Caelum to suffer the way you did?”

“What? No.” She tried to pull away again, but I wouldn’t let her. “Let me go, West.”

“No.” We had to have this talk or I would never know the truth. I didn’t want to spend another minute the way I had spent the last six years—not knowing about the fate of my first love. “I need to know. Why did you come here? What did you hope to accomplish? Do you and the other outsiders not even care about what happens to us inside?”

Her back tensed and her eyes widened. A laugh escaped her lips. “Ha! Pot, meet kettle.”

“Okay, I deserved that. But Cricket, what is this? Some sort of revenge mission?”

“Please understand.” Her gaze remained intense.

“I’m trying to,” I said quickly.

“I was entering a city virtually unknown to me without any way to defend myself. And I’d already experienced what you and your people do to people like me when you don’t get your way.”

I squeezed my eyes, remembering how I’d tasered her to the point that she fell unconscious.
 

“And I have no intention of being held prisoner inside New Caelum,” she continued. “That bomb is simply leverage—the only thing I could think of to ensure I have a way back out. If things go badly, I need Justin to believe I would sabotage your perfect little utopia. You people already think we’re savages, so I’m sure he won’t doubt me. But West, I want you to believe me: the last thing I want is for anyone to get this terrible virus. As long as Justin and President Layne cooperate, I’ll make sure the mechanism to scramble your air filtration system is deactivated, and that the virus bomb is destroyed.”

When I opened my eyes, her eyes were still locked on mine. “So you didn’t come here to destroy New Caelum.” I said.

“You know I didn’t. I came to find a cure for Bad Sam, to stop it before it spreads again. I want your sister to see another birthday. I don’t want your friends Ryder and Key to suffer and die. I want to save Dylan. I came for you.”

My heart constricted. I was accusing her of so many things, yet I was discovering that I was very wrong about her heart. “And you’d risk your entire future to come inside New Caelum so that you could save them.”

Cricket stopped fighting me. The muscles in her back relaxed. She lifted her hand and touched my cheek. “No one deserves to suffer the way I did. I risked my future to make sure your sister would have one.”

“If that bomb should detonate and Bad Sam breaks out among my people…”

“It won’t. And besides, this is an opportunity for your city to prove they can work with those of us on the outside.”

She had a point. Wasn’t that what I wanted eventually? To merge the citizens of New Caelum with those on the outside? Wouldn’t it be easier to do that if key people on both sides found a way to work together?
 

I covered her hand with my palm and leaned my face into her touch. As I stared into her eyes, I couldn’t imagine letting her walk away from New Caelum again. From me.

“I think I’m falling in love with you.”
 

The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. Instead of locking her up with Dax, like I should have after hearing about this bomb, I was confessing my true feelings for her.

Her entire body stiffened beneath my touch. “Don’t say that.”

“Why?” I whispered.

The muscles moved in her throat as she swallowed hard. “I would rather die than go through the pain of that disease again. But I’d also rather die than be confined inside the suffocating walls of this city. That’s not going to change.” She looked away, hiding her eyes from me.

“You not wanting to live inside this city with me doesn’t change how I feel. Or how I know you feel.”

“I can’t, West.”

“You don’t have to admit your feelings to me. Not yet. But you will… eventually. For now, we’ll play it your way.”

She looked up at me through a veil of dark lashes, evidence of her once-dark brown hair. “I will not stay in this city, West. No matter what I’m feeling.”

My lips twitched knowingly. I hated that she felt like my city was a prison, but given how she had been treated since she’d arrived, I couldn’t blame her. “I will help you,” I said.

She lifted a brow.

“Under one condition,” I added.

“What is that?”

I leaned in close to her ear again, attempting to keep our conversation private and taking in her sweet scent. “Justin wants me to convince you to stay inside New Caelum. You have to give me the chance to at least try. Or at least look like you’re giving me a chance.”

She pulled back with a raised brow. “What do I have to do?”

“I need you to act like my charm is working when we’re in front of Justin and my mother, or anytime we’re in public. I can’t stop this feeling that Justin, Mother, and the council are planning my future but haven’t bothered to tell me about it.”
 

Not to mention that one of them was behind the Bad Sam outbreak. And I was going to figure out who.

~~~~~

Cricket was dressed in a different sapphire dress the next morning. Picking at a plate of eggs and bacon, she sat with Justin and Mother at the dining room table. When I entered, she set her fork down and placed her napkin beside her plate. I gave my head a little shake, warning her not to get up. She sighed silently in response.

She was ready to see Dax and was not going to be very patient about it.

But after our talk last night, she’d have to practice a little self-restraint. We had to make Justin and the others believe that Cricket was considering a life inside New Caelum—force them to let their guard down where that was concerned.

“Good morning.” I leaned over and kissed Mother on her cheek.

“Morning, Westlin,” she responded, her voice curt. “You will meet with me later this morning to discuss how to handle food distribution on the south side of New Caelum.” Mother sounded more like her old self, the person she was before Willow had come down with Bad Sam. Justin didn’t even look up from the news screen on his PulsePoint. He was rapidly swiping through the morning’s headlines.

I walked the length of the table, grazing Cricket’s shoulder as I passed her. Anything to touch her. When I glanced back at Mother, I saw her staring at Cricket. Something was definitely different about Mother compared to the previous night. She seemed more… normal, maybe.

I grabbed a piece of toast and some bacon. Premium meat, like bacon, was only available to the highest class of citizens within New Caelum. There simply wasn’t enough to spread throughout the city.

“Cricket, how did you sleep last night?” Mother asked.

“Fine, President Layne.”

“Mother, how is Willow this morning?” I asked, drawing her attention away from Cricket.

She looked across the table at me, her eyes ice cold. “She’s in critical condition and in need of a cure.” She turned back to Cricket. “Cricket, how close was Caine to a cure to the virus?”

Cricket cleared her throat. “Well, we
thought
he was close.”

“What do you mean?”

“He treated some infected rats, and it was going well. They seemed to be getting better, but just before I came here, the last of the rats that we thought had a chance at survival died.” Cricket’s face fell, and I knew it was not only because they’d failed to find a cure, but because she hated that they were forced to experiment on the rats.
 

Mother’s lips pressed into a thin line. “I see.”

“I’m truly sorry about Willow, ma’am. I would like the opportunity to help Dr. Hempel in the lab. I’ll do anything I can to make sure your daughter finds relief.”

Mother set her coffee cup back on the matching saucer, letting the ceramic pieces clank together. “Why have you pretended to be someone other than Christina Black?”

I moved to the edge of my seat and almost stood to defend Cricket, but she swallowed hard, rotated her shoulders back, and faced Mother. “President Layne, I have not meant to offend you or the memory I have of you helping me when I was twelve. I only meant to protect myself.”

Cricket was nicer about it than I would have been. I didn’t understand what had gotten into my mother. I was glad she wasn’t the person she’d been last night, but—had she always been this direct and cold?

I guessed that maybe she had. Perhaps I had just never thought about what her tough exterior might look like to the outside world. The people on the inside knew of the sacrifices she’d made to keep them safe.

“Well, I thank you for coming to my daughter’s aid,” Mother said. “And I know that West was more than pleased to hear that you were alive.”

I couldn’t believe Mother could say that so plainly, without even acknowledging that she was the one who’d led me to believe that Cricket was dead in the first place. “What the hell, Mother? Of course I was pleased—you’d led me to believe that my best friend had died of the most painful disease ever known to man!”
 

I stood, letting my napkin fall to the ground. Mother simply stared at me, her mouth agape. I moved closer to Cricket.
 

“We’re going now. Cricket and I have a lot to do today, including checking in on Dr. Hempel.” How I could possibly make finding a cure to history’s most deadly disease sound like such a mundane item on our to-do list was beyond me.