Parched (29 page)

“It doesn't feel real,” she says gruffly. “What just happened. I feel like I'm dreaming or something.”

“Has that ever happened before?” I ask in a whisper. “Has anyone ever . . . died . . . in a mission?”

Naz shakes her head. It makes sense. After all, subs couldn't kill people—until now.

“How'd you get away?” Naz asks me.

I recount everything from the first bomb up until the Quick batting the grenade back to me.

“So why aren't you smeared on Simutech's walls right now?” she asks.

I can't bring myself to tell Kudzu about Hunter. The whole thing is just so impossibly weird. So impossibly wrong.

“Guess you survive one grenade, you can survive them all,” I mutter softly.

She snorts. “Pretty hard-core, Rockwood. You're lucky to be alive.” She tells me the three of them made it down the rope and, after escaping some Quicks at the bottom, got away on the floaters. From the sound of it, I'm the one who suffered the most injuries. But when she asks to see my palm, I'm shocked to see that the cut has already closed over and is starting to heal. “Doesn't look too bad.” She sniffs, giving me an unconcerned once-over. “You say that grenade exploded right at your feet?”

The nanites. I can't believe how fast they're working. “Sort of,” I backtrack. “It was pretty close.”

Naz rolls her eyes in disbelief and I flush with embarrassment. “So in between all that, you didn't see Aevum?”

“What do you mean?” I ask nervously.

“Aevum,” Naz repeats. “The thing. We still don't know what it looks like, right?”

“Yeah. No,” I stumble. “No. We don't. I didn't see it.”

Benji has stopped crying. Ling lets him go. She takes a long, deep breath and then looks around at us all evenly. “So. What do we do now?”

As Naz and Ling begin debating between taking the back roads to Milkwood or staying in the city, I think about what I want to do. I know we should lay low. But this is the only chance we have. As soon as the Trust arrive at Simutech, it's all over.

Which brings me to the question I've had ever since Hunter's blue blood stained the end of my knife.

Can I kill Hunter?

The thought threatens nausea and I work hard to contain it.

If I tell Kudzu about Hunter, they'll freak. The only way we go back is if I tell them later. Yes, I care about Hunter. More than I've been willing to admit. But I can't let my feelings get in the way of what I know is right.

So when Ling asks me what I think we should do next, I respond by asking if Kudzu has a weapon that'll heat the mirror matter to over two thousand degrees.

“Oh, Tess.” Ling looks at me, totally crestfallen. “I can't believe I didn't tell you.” She gestures to herself forlornly. “I lost it. It's gone.”

“No, it's not.” I quickly explain where the mirror matter actually is—the bottom of the indoor garden in the meeting room. “No one else knows it's there,” I say. “That room wasn't on the security streams.”

This isn't entirely true—I don't know if Hunter knows it's there. As far as I know, Magnus couldn't track his own mirror matter, but Magnus could barely do the dishes. Hunter might have it, right now, fitted back in his artificial brain. But that won't stop me. I will get it from him and I will destroy it or I will die trying. I have Lana's blood on my hands now. I have to.
I have to
.

“So,” I say again. “Does Kudzu have a weapon that'll heat the mirror matter to over two thousand degrees?”

Naz thinks about it for a moment, then nods curtly. “It's doable.”

“Then there is only one thing we can do,” I say. “We go back. Right now.”

“What?” Ling gapes at me.

“Look, the Trust will be there within the hour—”

“How do you know that?” Naz asks incredulously.

“I heard the scientists talking. After we got separated.” I'm not about to tell them Hunter had let that slip while we were in the florist shop. “The first thing they'll do is relocate Aevum to the Three Towers.” The Three Towers are the most heavily fortified buildings in all of Eden. It is impossible to get in or out unless you're Trust.

“She's probably right,” Naz says gruffly. “And that's game over for us.”

“But every Quick in the city is after us,” Ling says. “Authorized to execute, remember?”

“Can you think of another plan?” I ask.

Ling is silent.

My voice sounds steely and cool. “We go back now, and we destroy the mirror matter while it's still at Simutech. Who's on board? This only works if everyone's in.”

Naz flicks her cigarette butt high up over our heads. “I am. I think I know how to wipe out those Quicks too.”

“Excellent.” I breathe in relief.

“I am,” Benji says. His eyes are still dull with grief, as if part of him died with Lana. Right now he looks more like a substitute than a human.

“Are you sure you're up for it?” I ask. “Maybe you should—”

“I'm going.”

Ling is shaking her head, trying to process what I know sounds like a death-wish of a plan. “I can't guarantee everyone's safety,” she says. “Not after what happened to Lana.”

“We've only got one shot at this, Ling,” I say quietly. “If we want to destroy that mirror matter before it's moved up to the Towers, if we want to stop a massacre out in the Badlands, we have to act now.”

Ling meets my eyes. She trusts me. Right or wrong, Ling has always trusted me. She presses her comm back into her ear, looking right at me as she speaks to Achilles. “How long before you can get the rest of Kudzu to the Hive?”

We are going back to Simutech. We are going back to kill Hunter.

The
next half hour passes in a blur. In the forest, Naz barks off the weapons she needs while Ling issues calm, fast orders, creating a plan of attack on the fly. Benji pockets his comm and drifts away from us to stare silently at the moon. When I catch his eye as we prepare to leave, I shiver. His gaze, once alert and joyful, is dead and empty.

Our ride back is slow and surreally calm. Again, we stay off main roads in favor of silent suburban back streets. We weave past sleeping homes winking with reassuring night-lights. Past empty boutiques and beautiful parks. Through the midnight-quiet streets of the clean and gleaming Hive.

The alley next to Simutech will be crawling with Quicks, so we decide to meet the others in a twenty-four-hour parking garage on the other side of the Hive. We park our floaters, then assemble quietly in the eerie garage, which is full of empty buzzcars stacked one on top of another. The space is lit by moody red light and feels monumentally creepy.

“Hey, Tess.” Ling opens her palm to reveal a Kudzu necklace—the silver K on a thin red string. It's an offering.

I glance at Naz to see if she objects. Then I lift up my ponytail for Ling to tie it around my neck, but she shakes her head. “No. Leave it with one of the others. Just in case . . .”
Just in case we're caught. Just in case we don't make it back
.

Ling circles her arms around me for a quick, hard hug. I catch the scent of the burning bombs in her hair. “Thank you,” I say, my throat a little tight.

Benji gives me a bland smile, and even Naz nods her approval. “But throw away another muesli bar,” she warns, “and I'll rip it off you myself.” I get the impression she's only half kidding.

I squeeze the necklace tight in my fist. I'm Kudzu now. I'm one of them.

Seeing the rest of Kudzu ride into the sinister red light of the parking garage is a wake-up call. Gone is the playful, lighthearted crew. Now the grim young rebels look ready for warfare.

Bo beelines for Ling, pressing his lips on her dirty forehead, before Ling breaks away to address the small crowd. “Okay, listen up. I know Achilles filled you in on what happened.” She pauses for a second, then continues in a clear, unwavering voice. “She was the best of us. And we're not taking this lying down. It's okay if you're not in. But this is about stopping a massacre. And this is about Lana.”

Ling breaks us into three assault teams—Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. Gamma is on getaway, keeping the floaters safe from Quicks and ready to pick up everyone after we destroy the mirror matter. Those are mostly the non-fighters, including Henny. Beta team will draw fire from the Quicks and Tranqs, clearing the way for Alpha team. Ling assigns the Beta team: Gem, Kissy, Bo, and Tomm. Naz, Benji, Ling, and I are Alpha.

“I need one more volunteer for Alpha,” Ling says, surveying the quiet group.

No one speaks. No one is under the illusion that Alpha's task isn't the most dangerous.

“I'll go.” It's Achilles.

Ling frowns at the not-exactly-muscular boy. “Are you sure?”

“No,” he replies. “But you need me. Security's still on lockdown. Anything I could do remotely, from Kudzu, would take days. But I can hack the Liamond system on site with this.” He pulls a square of scratch from his pocket and opens a stream with his eyes. The stream is a series of different-sized falling blocks, which remind me of a kids' game where the aim is to make the different pieces all fit together.

“What is that?” I ask.

“Think of it as a really complicated key,” he says. “I call it . . . a Key.” He explains he can use this stream to lock and unlock all entrances and exits, but only from the main security desk in the foyer. “That means I have to physically get inside with you.”

Ling's eyebrows draw together in concern. “Achilles, are you sure? You've never been on the front line.”

“Again, big-time no,” Achilles says. “But unless you limit the number of subs and people after you, you'll never make it. You'll need the exits sealed off, and you'll need all the doors inside unlocked.”

I can see from Ling's expression that she knows he's right. She turns to Naz, and nods.

Naz flips open a piece of canvas I'd seen Bo unpacking to reveal a dozen or so air rifles.

I stare at the guns in front of me: bulky, unsophisticated things with large metal canisters strapped to the bottoms and long barrels that taper forward like a pointed finger. “We're going against the Quicks with
air
?”

Naz picks up one of the rifles and fires at a nearby upcycling machine. We all jump as it flies back, crashing loudly onto the concrete thirty feet away.

“Naz!” Ling hisses in horror as the machine skids noisily to a stop. “What happened to stealth?”

Naz throws me a dirty look and snarls, “Someone said no razers.”

“I didn't invent that rule because I wanted a challenge, Naz,” I shoot back. “I was just telling you what I know—”

“Guys!” Ling warns.

We both shut up.

Naz shows the Alpha and Beta teams how to aim and fire the rifles. A solid posture is key, so as not to lose your balance on the kickback. Just one hard pulse of air. Aim for the chest or legs. The upcycling machine proved the air rifles are powerful. But powerful enough to knock down a Quick coming straight at you?

“Should be.”

We also get small razer pistols. If it comes down to it, the razers are for human targets. Naz hands me the weapon, almost inconsequential with its light and easy grip.

“I wonder if I'll be able to go through with it,” I say.

“Go through with what?”

I swallow hard. “Killing someone.”

“It's not killing someone,” she says matter-of-factly. “It's protecting yourself and your team.”

Because of the noise both weapons make, I won't even have a chance to test them before using them for the first time. I mutter this to Achilles as he fits me with a new comm.

“Yeah,” he responds, straight-faced. “Being a revolutionary is amazetown, huh?”

“What about you? This your first time firing with air?” I wave the
rifle at him and he flinches, dropping the comm. I raise my eyebrows as he bends to pick it up.

“I'm not really . . . into guns,” he says apprehensively.

“Seriously? What are you doing in Kudzu?”

“Hey, I'm tech,” he says defensively. “Geek boy, remember? Kind of out of my element here.”

So only four of our five will actually have weapons? I try to ignore the sour feeling of foreboding that's bubbling inside me. “What about the mirror matter?”

Naz holds aloft an enormous flamethrower. “I'm packing this baby,” she announces, kissing the weapon's huge barrel dramatically.

“And it'll get above two thousand degrees?” I ask.

“Just need a clean shot,” she replies, oozing confidence.

Ling raises her voice. “Time to go. Everyone ready?”

Our mission leader stands before us, jutting her chin defiantly, sweat beading her brow. In a loud, clear voice, she says, “Our minds are better. Our hands are faster. Our hearts are stronger.” She pauses, and the last words are spoken by us all, echoing around the parking garage: “We are Kudzu.”

I want us to sound strong. But our voices waver for a fraction, out of sync, and instead we sound slightly unsure.

“Alpha team, remember to wait for my signal,” Ling announces. “Let's move.”

Everyone in Alpha and Beta finds the backseat of a floater driven by someone in Gamma.

“Chicken.” Henny pats the seat behind her. “Ride with me.”

I hand her my Kudzu necklace. “Can you keep this safe?”

“I'll have it waiting for you,” she says.

We take off like a flock of dark avenging angels. I find myself holding on to Henny's warm and comforting body tighter than I need to. This may well be the last time I ever get to hold another human being.

HOW THE FUTURE FEELS
.

Simutech's slogan stretches above the front entrance, illuminated in a jerky dance of flashing lights. From our vantage point across and down the street, crouched behind a parked buzzcar, those of us on Alpha team can see the front entrance. Any hope that it might be easier to get in than we thought is instantly dashed.