Kings and Crowns: A Dystopian Thriller (Age of End Book 2) (18 page)

He pressed the button again to end the broadcast and switched back to the news.

So there you have it. Victor Greene has confirmed the rumors. Vince and Saul are not the heroes we thought they were. This is unfortunate news, but Victor Greene has spoken words of strength and reassurance. Let us hope his words are true, that he can keep us safe from these dangerous terrorists. These are scary times indeed, but his confidence gives me hope. It gives all of us hope.

Victor switched it off. “Good enough.”

THIRTY-FIVE

ALAN LAID ON his back, looking up at the ceiling. “How long are we going to wait here? Shouldn’t we at least try something? Cutting these bars, or breaking these walls? Anything?”

“No,” Rupert said. “None of that will work, not in time at least. We need to get out quick, and the quickest way is to find someone with security clearance.”

“How about that labbie?” Ella said.

“Yes,” Rupert said. “Humphrey Jacks. He is perfect.”

“And he’s easy to manipulate,” Alan said. “He gave up that information pretty easily.”

“But we haven’t delivered on our promise yet,” Ella said. “He hasn’t gotten his meeting with Vince and Saul.”

Alan laughed. “Well, that’s even more reason for him to help us. He can’t expect us to set up a meeting if we’re locked up.”

“What are you guys talking about,” Ella said. “Vince and Saul will be dead in a few hours. We can’t set up a meeting even if we were free.”

Boots clanged on the metal stairs above. “Someone’s coming,” Rupert said.

They listened as the footstep got closer. The creak of each step hovered just above them. They glared at the stairs, waiting for the person to reveal themselves. Legs came into sight. Then a body. And finally a face. It was Charlotte.

“Charlotte!” Alan yelled. “You came to help—”

Before he could finish, he noticed that her hands were bound. Two guards came down the stairs behind her, guns drawn. They escorted her to an empty cell and locked her inside, before turning around and climbing back up the stairs.

At first, the three said nothing. They stared straight ahead in confusion.

Finally, Alan broke the silence. “If no one else is going to ask, then I will. What the hell happened up there? Why are they locking you up?”

“For saving Vince and Saul’s lives,” she answered.

“What?” Ella said, letting out a sigh of relief. “Vince and Saul are alive? They weren’t executed?”

“No. It was interrupted.”

“By what?”

“I sent out a broadcast and said they were traitors, working for Simon to kill Greene. Now he can’t kill them.”

“Holy crap,” Alan said. “So that means they’re working with Simon now. Damn, this is getting confusing.”

“If they’re alive,” Rupert said, “that means we can still get Humphrey to help us.”

“Vince and Saul are traitors now,” Ella said. “Will he still want to meet them?”

“It’s worth a shot,” Alan said. “We can convince him they’re still secretly working for Greene or something. That doof will believe anything.”

“Humphrey Jacks?” Charlotte said. “He’s not the brightest. It still baffles me how he got his position as a labbie.”

“He can get us out, right?”

“He has the authorization, if that’s what you’re asking. I do too, until tomorrow when they wipe me from the system. But that doesn’t do us any good if I’m locked up in this cell, without access to the control room. Humphrey though. He can definitely get us out.”

Rupert nodded. “We just need a way to contact him.”

“Guards!” Alan yelled. “Guards get over here! It’s an emergency!” He waited for a response, but there was nothing. He slapped his knee. “Shucks! Well, it was worth a try. Anyone else got any ideas?”

Charlotte pointed to the small kiosk across from them. A small light was blinking from the bottom panel. “That’s a computer. It has a directory of people who work in the Spire. If we can somehow reach it, we can use it to call Humphrey.”

“Like the one we saw in the medical sector,” Ella said.

“Exactly. Right now I’d say that’s our best option.”

“And then what?” Alan asked.

“We find Fred,” Rupert said, “and then we get the hell out of here.”

Charlotte pointed to the kiosk again. “If we can convince Humphrey to let us free, we can use the evacuation pods. I doubt they’ll follow us if we shoot out to the water.”

“No,” Ella said. “We go for Greene first, before we leave.”

“Don’t push our luck,” Alan said.

“If we leave the Spire, we may never get a chance to take him out. We may never see him again. Our alliance with him is already broken, so there’s no reason we shouldn’t go after him, right? We can deal with Greene, and Vince and Saul can deal with Simon.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“Actually,” Charlotte said, “it won’t be too difficult once we’re free of the cell room. Only a small number a people know we’re locked up. To everyone else, we’re still his allies. Of course, we’ll be on camera, but if we make it to the server room, I can shut them all off. Then he’ll be blind.”

“I like it,” Ella said. “We might be able to pull this off.”

Rupert stared at the kiosk. “First, we have to figure out how to reach that thing.”

They all stared straight ahead, watching the light blink. It was just out of reach.

THIRTY-SIX

AS THEY WAITED for Simon to return, Saul flipped through the monitor journal, fascinated by the idea that his entire life was chronicled in such a small book. He turned the pages and read about past events from his life. He read about Rodin, about his life after banishment, about his quest to hunt down Barnabus. Everything leading up to now. All two hundred years condensed into a two-inch stack of paper.

“It’s amazing,” Saul said as he turned the page. “They have everything in here. It’s like I’m reliving my own life. I can’t believe how much we’ve been through.”

“We have been through a lot, haven’t we? Two hundred years is a long time.”

Saul read another entry and laughed. “Remember the time we went apple picking, and you said you could reach the highest apple in the tree?”

“Hey, I was pretty darn close. If those squirrels had minded their own business, I would have made it, easily.”

“You always blame those squirrels.”

“Yeah, well you didn’t do any better. You fell eight times or so, at least.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t remind me.”

“And then you found that blue apple, and I convinced you it was the rarest of sweet apples.”

“You have no idea how vile it tasted.”

“I can’t believe you believed me. You were so gullible.”

“And you took full advantage.”

Vince chuckled. “Of course I did. Why wouldn’t I?”

Saul stared at the page, titled
Apple Picking
. “It’s all in here. Everything.” He sighed. “We were good friends.”

“Good? We were amazing friends. Nothing less.”

“That’s for sure.” He flipped through some more. “My life. It’s had its ups, and it’s certainly had its downs, but overall it’s been pretty good…My life has been good. Not many people can say that. People die with regrets, wishing they had lived a different life.” He looked away from the page and to the ground. “Not that I don’t have regrets. I have many, but I’ve grown since my days in Rodin.”

Vince stared at him. “You certainly have.”

“And when I look back at my life, I’m happy.” A single tear escaped his eye. “I know my days are numbered, but I’m happy with the life I’m leaving.”

“Saul.”

“It’s okay, Vince. You don’t have to say anything. We’ll charge the Spire tomorrow and you’ll go on to live the rest of your life, doing good, because you’re a good person. This thing with my lung is something I can’t fight. I’m going to die and I’ve come to accept it.” More tears trickled down his face.

Vince stood up and walked over to sit next to him.

“How did Charlotte put it?” Saul continued. “We live, we play, we die. That’s how it goes.”

“I think she said it more eloquently than that, but you got the point. People die. That’s a part of life. It’s bad to kill, but it’s not bad to die.”

“It’s bad to kill. We’ve killed plenty, Vince.”

Vince looked down. “I know.”

“So are we bad? We kill to stop others from killing, right? You killed Barnabus, and I would have done the same. That doesn’t make us bad people, does it?

“No.”

“So why do I feel guilty? Charlotte asked if we would stop draining once Greene is dead. I don’t know if I could, but I guess I don’t have a choice. I will die, plain and simple.”

“Try not to think about it.”

“No, that’s my point. I’ve been trying to ignore it this whole time because I was afraid, but Charlotte is right. We shouldn’t fear it. We need to make life the best it can be while it’s here. And then when it’s over, it’s over.”

Vince smiled. “You’ve grown so much.”

They sat side by side, in their final moments before charging the Spire.

THIRTY-SEVEN

ARE ALL OF the cameras disabled?” Simon asked, looking up at the buildings.

The guard scratched his head. “All of them we could find. There are still plenty out there, but Greene has big blind spots. At least for now.”

“Good enough. We just need to stay away from them while we search.”

The guard continued to scratch his head. “Search for what again?”

“Christ, the sensors. Pay attention, damn it.” He turned to Vince and Saul. “You two are sure this will work? They always have so many people on the walls. It’s hard to find a weak spot. We’ve only managed to get this far with sheer numbers. Just throwing everyone we have at them.”

Vince nodded. “It will work. They may appear to have lots of people, but they don’t. They play artificial cheering over their speakers to create the illusion of a large army. We’ve seen their team. Greene has a small squad of specialized soldiers, and the rest are just volunteers. Ordinary people. These sensors activate an alarm that tells them which direction you’re coming from. That’s how they’re always ready for you. But when you trigger more than one, it’s chaos up on that wall. They’re a scattered mess. If we can activate three or four at the same time, they won’t know what to do. It will be the perfect time to attack.”

“He will keep most of his forces at Post Five,” Saul said, “where walls one and two are down. That’s the weakest spot. But Post One is weak as well. That’s good. It’ll spread them out. With these sensors, we can hopefully thin them out even more.”

“With their forces spread across the wall,” Vince continued, “and using your brute numbers method, we have a good chance of overpowering them.”

Simon grinned. “That bastard won’t know what hit him.”

“He knows we’re up to something,” Saul said. “It will be hard to catch him off guard, but I don’t think he’ll be ready for this.”

Simon scanned the ground in front of him. “What exactly do these sensors look like?”

Saul shrugged. “We’ve never seen one. All we know is they exist.”

“Then what the hell are my men supposed to look for? Your plan is useless without those sensors.”

“Look for anything that looks unusual,” Vince said. “It’s Spire technology. It will probably have the City crest. They’re laid out in an arch around the Spire, so once we find one, the rest should be easy.”

“But this first one,” Simon said, gritting his teeth. “How do we find this goddamn first one?”

“Just be patient.”

“I have no goddamn time for patience. We need to attack Greene while he’s weak.”

“Believe me,” Saul said. “Finding these sensors will be worth it.”

“It better be.”

He sent his men out across the streets to scour every corner, making sure to avoid from active cameras. Vince and Saul stayed with Simon, guiding him to possible points of interest.

“How strong are these things?” Simon asked.

“They cover the entire border around the Spire,” Saul said. “So they’re either strong as hell, or there are just a lot of them. It doesn’t really matter for us. We just need to find one in each of the five sections.”

“We don’t need all five,” Vince said. “Three sections should be enough. Post One and Five are already heavily defended. If we can find sensors in Two, Three, and Four, that should be enough.”

“And then we attack,” Simon said. “We still have bombs, but we’re running low. In our previous attack, we lost a lot of supplies.”

And you lost a lot of children, you crazy bastard
, Saul thought to himself. “Those were impressive tactics you used against Greene.”

Simon chuckled. “Greene has always been soft. That day was no different. He hesitated and paid the price. But with the third wall exposed, I can’t expect to be so lucky. He may be soft, but he’s not dumb. He learns from his mistakes.”

“So it wouldn’t work again.”

“That right. And that’s why your plan better work. We can’t afford any screw-ups.”

“It will work,” Vince said with confidence. “Trust us. We want to break in just as much as you do. We want to see Greene fall. And our friends are still in there. We need to get them out.”

Simon’s man yelled from the other side of the block. They turned their heads to hear the distant voice.

“He must have found something,” Simon said. “Come on, let’s go.”

They approached the man who was yelling. It was good old Crooked Tooth Jonah, holding the same turtle mug, filled with hot tea. Simon placed a hand on his shoulder. “What did you find?”

Jonah stepped aside to reveal a small mechanism, poking out of the dirt. On the top was a flashing light, and underneath, 3
/2
, was imprinted.

Vince knelt down to examine the device, reading the words on the side. “Invisible fence beacon,” he read. “Thirty-foot-tall model.” He looked up at the virtual fence that he could not see. There was a thin shadow line in the dirt, stemming from the device in both directions. It was faint, but noticeable. It ran along the center of the large street. “It must connect from beacon to beacon, like a real fence, and this is the barrier.” He pointed to the line. “If we walk past this, the alarm sounds.”

“Post Two on this side,” Saul added, “and Post Three on this side.” He pointed to the right and the left of the device.