Numbers Ignite (22 page)

“How long will it take?” I asked, eyeing the mound.

“Two or three days, if we work through the night. Assuming we can get it to work. I’m fairly certain Coltrane knows it inside and out, considering how that boy worshiped the engineering plans his father left behind.”

I resisted the urge to look toward the door again. “The other option is waiting it out, rationing food and then trying to bust through the wreckage from the bomb. But even if we can get through, which I doubt, we’ll be stuck in the middle of the desert with no supplies.”

“If they’ve left the cafeteria intact, we can scrounge what’s left.”

I shook my head. “The cafeteria is gone. From what I could tell, this was the last area left untouched, before Lillibeth—” My voice sounded strangled.
Focus.
I cleared my throat and tried again.
“Personally, I’d forget about the tunnels and create a new route, straight east. Do any of the sentinel cameras still work? Maybe the network can help guide us to a hill where we’ll be covered.”

“That was my thought as well. And now the other question. Where do we go?”

“You meet up with the other refugees. They’re building a settlement high in the mountains. You should be safe with them if you can get there.”

She nodded. “If there’s one thing this group is good at, it’s surviving. What about you, Amy, dear?”

I looked at Coltrane’s still form again. “I don’t think I’m welcome here. I’ll scout ahead and leave a trail for you.”

She cocked her head. “What of your family?”

My mom’s desperate shrieking seared into my mind. She probably thought I was dead. I closed my eyes against the pain. “I made my choice when I left. I can’t go back now.” What was it Mom had said? Something about Dresden needing me. Right. I bet he did.

Ruby glanced at the door and then patted my shoulder. “Lillibeth was a good leader and a dedicated mother. I believe she knew exactly what she was doing when she locked that door behind her.”

My voice was hard. “Coltrane already lost one parent. She was all he had left.”

“Coltrane is a survivor, like his father. I think she saw that.” She gave a wry smile. “And you, dear Amy, carry a heavier burden than one person should be expected to shoulder. Do not take guilt that belongs to others. When you’re my age, you’ll have enough of your own.”

I stood, looking away, anywhere but at Ruby’s face. “Tell me what I can do to help.”

Ruby hesitated. “I don’t think the people should know you’re involved. But I do think there’s one person who needs someone, and I’m pretty sure he’s faking sleep right now.” She glanced at the door, then walked away.

It took several minutes for me to gather my courage, but I finally made my way over to Coltrane. At first I thought Ruby was wrong. Coltrane’s side moved up and down in a steady, silent rhythm. The shudders that had rocked him last night were gone. He’d finally found a little peace in sleep. The last thing I wanted to do was take that from him.

As I turned to leave, he spoke, still facing the door. “It should have been you.”

His words knocked the air from my chest, and I found it hard to answer. “I know.”

“We were fine before you came. Maxim’s right. NORA would’ve never found us, and my mom would still be here.”

And they’d all be safe in their beds, anticipating another eventless day working away at the contributions. “It’s true.”

“But it’s not really your fault, is it?” Coltrane rolled over and sat up. The same gentle eyes that had pleaded for my love yesterday were now hard as steel. “You didn’t force your way down here.” His voice was bitter. “It’s because of me. I should have let you die.”

“Coltrane—”

“Enough,” he snapped. “I can’t take back the past, but maybe it would be better if you left.” He stood and strode toward the dark mound, stepping carefully around sleeping bodies. Ruby had begun sliding the tarp off the excavator, and he headed in that direction.

“But—” I moved to follow, but he turned and gave me a sharp look. I stopped in my tracks.

Coltrane’s words had stirred a few people awake. Soon hundreds of settlers would begin their day, the first of many without a home. Today Ruby would propose that they make their way to the mountains. They wouldn’t like it, but they had little choice. Denoux probably suspected we were dead, but I knew without a doubt that NORA would be watching the desert closely. Survival was our priority now. There would be time for looking back later.

I sat next to the door now, taking Coltrane’s perch. The ground was still warm from where his body had lain. My dream came back then, hitting my mind with staggering force—Tali’s insistence that it was my leaving that had killed them. What in the fates was that supposed to mean? Surely she wanted me to find happiness, especially when the only thing that awaited me in NORA was pain.

She doesn’t want you to do anything
, I reminded myself.
It was a dream pulled from your subconscious. Tali is dead. She’s not telling you anything. Ever again.

So much death. I hugged my knees like Coltrane had, taking over his somber vigil near where his mother had spent her last moments and trying desperately to push away the darkness in my thoughts.

The guard didn’t return all that day. When the adults returned in the late morning, coughing and dragging their feet in exhaustion, some of the older children greeted them on the trail with a makeshift breakfast. These kids had nothing but their clothes and possibly a tent made of canvas or old fabric sewn together, yet they gave away their food with a smile. Their breakfast looked like hard, dry pancakes.

“Want one?” a boy asked.

I turned to find a familiar face. Selia Dunstrep’s son, the one I’d arrested in Olympus weeks earlier.

He beamed and held out a pancake. “They’re hard and not sweet at all, but edible. I already had one.”

I accepted it and took a bite. His description basically covered it. “Thanks,” I said through the food, then swallowed. “So you got out.”

“Yeah. My brother says he gave you his water packet yesterday. I’ve been watching you. Doesn’t look like anyone’s giving you food or water, so I figured I’d help.”

“That was your brother?” The boy and his family had escaped NORA, at least. “Is your mom around?”

“No, she works at the—”

“Water plant. I know.”

He watched me shove the last bite into my mouth. I savored it, letting the crumbs melt in my mouth before swallowing. It made my mouth dry, but, hey, it was food.

Finally he spoke again. “You need a guard. The other one left.”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.” The kid acted like I was a family friend, not the guy who had arrested him and his mom.

“Then I’ll just hang out here for a while,” he said and sat down on the hard ground, settling in and looking upward at the sky. “My brother’s swimming, but he’s crazy. That water is disgusting.”

This conversation was so bizarre. “You remember who I am, right?” I asked.

“’Course.”

I wiped my mouth with my sleeve. “I don’t see why you’re giving me food, then.”

He turned to me. “My mom says NORA brought out the worst in all of us. Now that we’re here, we can be ourselves again. Figure that applies to you as much as anybody.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so I sat back and let silence fall once again.

That night I awoke again, but there was no smoke in the air this time. I strained to hear something, anything, in the darkness. Selia’s boys had taken turns “guarding” me all day, but they seemed to be gone now. Good.

I had nearly gone back to sleep when a foot stepped quietly in the gravel. If they’d walked by quickly, I wouldn’t have woken up at all. I’d gotten used to sleeping with people striding by. The alarming part was how soft the footsteps were. Like someone was sneaking up on my cage.

I kept my eyes closed and steadied my breathing, ears perked for the slightest sound. There it was again, a tiny click of two rocks grinding underfoot. Closer now…maybe five feet.

My eye opened a crack. Still no guard. The cold night chill had settled upon my skin hours ago. Nobody else was awake.

The sound stopped. It was silent for so long I wondered if I had dreamed the sound. I turned to check.

Moonlight glinted off a metal surface. A knife, headed straight for my throat.

I recoiled and grabbed at where the handle should be, but the attacker had turned it, redirecting it at my chest. I gripped his hand and ducked, shoving his arm hard against the bars. He grunted but didn’t let go of the knife.

I clung to it with both hands now, trying to peel it free, ducking below the attacker’s hand. He closed his fist around the knife and sent a downward punch. That was harder to avoid. I wrapped his elbow as it entered the cage and snapped it sideways. He gasped, finally dropping the knife.

I scrambled for it, feeling along the floor of my cage. Clouds covered the moon tonight, withholding the light I so desperately needed. I caught the corner of the knife and accidentally swept it out of the cage.

My would-be assassin’s outline was black as he moved around the cage toward where the blade had fallen. He held his injured arm with the other. “You will pay for that,” he growled in broken English.

“After you,” I snapped. My hand finally found the knife through the bars and yanked it back just before the man leaped for it. I sliced a nice line in his arm before he pulled back. Not deep, but enough to make him think twice.

He reached into his jacket and took something out. A pistol.

“Probably should have started with that,” I said. “Unless you were trying to keep all of this quiet. I guess I can see the appeal if you’re not intending to get caught.”

He pulled the hammer back and aimed the gun at my chest. “Do not worry. I won’t.”

I’d had plenty of guns aimed at me. It wasn’t tough to dodge if you did it just before they pulled the trigger, forcing the shooter to readjust his aim. But this time I had nowhere to go. I couldn’t even stand up straight, much less leap to the side.

I threw all my weight forward against the cage. It balanced at first, resisting my weight, then started to tip forward. A sharp crack split the air as wind rushed past my face. I flung myself against the bottom as the cage fell onto its side. My attacker took a step forward, put one foot on the cage to keep it from rolling further, and aimed it at my head.

I kicked the floor with all my strength, using both feet at once. I wasn’t sure what that would accomplish—maybe knock out the base, or knock his foot free, or even make him pause. But it propelled me to the top of the cage just before his shot went off. My shoulder jerked, and blinding pain slammed into my consciousness. I gritted my teeth. “Hey, everybody wake up!”

The man cursed in Chinese and aimed again.

“What’s going on?” someone shouted. A woman. Her footsteps pounded through the gravel toward us.

“Rot in hell,” the man whispered. Then he lowered the gun and placed both hands on the cage—and pushed.

It tilted again, then the cage started to roll. I was a limp doll. Each rotation caused me to land with a thud on the ground. The pain in my shoulder was blinding. Somewhere I became aware of a splash. And then water everywhere.

Water.