Rage Within (34 page)

They entered through the kitchen and all was quiet. In the living room, Larisa sat in the shadows, reading a book by candlelight. Her face fell when she saw how straggled and wiped everyone was.

“I’m sorry,” Larisa said, automatically assuming they’d found nothing. “No luck?”

“It was eventful,” Clementine said. “Just not the way you might think.” She began to explain, and Aries jumped in too, telling them about Mason’s ankle monitor.

“They can be removed,” Raj said. “I’ve heard stories of people getting them off. Hmmm, there’s got to be some info out there somewhere. How I wish the Internet still existed. I could find out tonight.” He tenderly rubbed the bridge of his swollen nose. “Man, I miss technology.”

“We’re going back for him as soon as possible,” Aries said as she sat down on the couch. “I’m not leaving Mason to rot in that hellhole. We need to find a way to remove the device.”

“I’ll help best I can, babes,” Raj said. “I guess we can hit up a library. Might find something there.”

“Me too,” Clementine added. Getting Mason back would be the best thing in the world for Aries. She would need the positive distraction, and Clementine had seen the way they looked at each other, Daniel or no Daniel.

“But I should go stand watch,” Larisa said, pulling herself up off the chair. “Eve is asleep. I gave her a sleeping pill; she was pretty distraught. Claude offered to sit with her, but he’s not happy. I don’t think he’s going to stick around much
longer. And of course that Colin guy is more than useless.”

“I can do it,” Clementine said.

“Not a chance,” Larisa said with a wink. “You need some beauty sleep for when you go searching for your boy tomorrow. And I’m more than wide-awake.” She picked up the transistor radio on the table. “I’ll holler if anything happens, but as long as you weren’t followed, I doubt we’ll have any surprises tonight.”

No sooner had the words escaped her lips than they all felt the draft. A cool breeze wafted in from the kitchen. The click of the latch as someone opened the door.

They all stood in unison. Clementine tightened her grip on the Taser. There were several long, agonizing seconds until someone walked through the door. Clementine gasped in surprise.

It was Michael.

MICHAEL

He remembered it was Christmas morning just as Clementine threw herself into his arms. He couldn’t think of a better gift. Not even a brand-new Les Paul guitar could have made him happier.

And he’d come bearing presents.

Clementine held him tightly for several seconds. Aries smiled at him, her eyes dark and lost. He knew immediately something bad had happened to her.

“I missed you,” he whispered into Clementine’s hair. “But look at what I brought back.”

She gazed up at him and then noticed Heath for the first time standing behind him. And . . . something was wrong. There was no recognition in her eyes. No jumping up and down. No screams of joy.

“Clementine?”

Heath began to laugh.

Michael suddenly understood he’d done a very stupid thing.

“You sure are gullible,” Heath said. “You should have listened to your dead friend. He suspected me from the very
beginning. But no, you were too stupid to figure it out. Too eager to get back to your pretty girlfriend. You didn’t even see when I dropped the key on the floor for the others to claim him while we were out nabbing the van.”

Michael’s teeth clamped down tightly, his fingers curling into fists at his sides.

“I mean, even I can’t believe how easily you fell for that.” Heath’s voice changed to a higher octave. “Clementine? You’ve seen her? My dear, sweet baby sister. Oh, I’m the luckiest brother in the entire world. I can’t wait to join her. We can bake cookies and pies. It’ll be so delightful.”

Clementine jolted as if she’d been hit by lightning.

“How is that possible?” Raj asked, taking a step forward and looking right in fake Heath’s face. “There’s nothing wrong with your eyes. I’ve never seen one of you without the black veins.”

“When it gets to be too much, it shows,” fake Heath said. “The eyes are the window to the soul. But some of us have learned to push it back down. Keep it hidden. Sure as hell fooled you all. Who are you gonna trust now?”

“Everyone in this room except you,” Clementine said. “Isn’t that why you took Mason? Isn’t that why you lied to Michael? You had no idea where we were until tonight. I trust everyone here. They’ve never let me down.”

The fake Heath moved quickly, shoving Michael aside and grabbing Clementine by the arm.

“They’re gonna let you down now, sweetie,” he hissed. “Not a single one of them can save you now.”

Raj jumped in, but fake Heath slammed him back and into the advancing Aries. Michael took advantage of the distraction and punched the fake Heath as hard as he could. It barely made a dent.

But he let go of Clementine and shoved her into the pile of her friends.

“Oh, come on,” he said. “You can do better than that.”

Michael nodded, raising his fist again. “You’re right, I can.”

He faked a left jab, punching with his right when Heath blocked. His fist smashed against the side of the Bagger’s face, hitting his ear with all his might. The Bagger let out an oomph noise, and then punched back, sending Michael against the wall.

Michael didn’t pause at all. Instead he ducked his head in, pushed forward, and body slammed the fake Heath, knocking him back against the already broken flat screen television. Jagged glass sliced Michael’s arm, but he barely registered the burning pain. Instead, he twisted his body around until he was on top of the other boy, and began sending blow after blow into the Bagger’s face and upper body.

When he was finished, the fake Heath’s face was mulched. He smiled up at Michael through bloodstained teeth.

“You do realize you’re just helping me stall, right?” He turned and spat blood on the wall. “They’re on their way here. Any second now they’ll burst through your security. Can you fight us all off? Nope, don’t think so.”

“Come on, Michael.” Clementine grabbed his arms and pulled him back. “He’s right. We have to get out of here.”

“Get the others,” Aries snapped.

“I’ll get Eve,” Larisa said. She turned and headed up the stairs with Joy right behind her.

Fake Heath laughed again, a low, throaty chuckle. Pulling himself up to his feet, he swayed unevenly as he tried to maintain his balance. “I know who you are. I recognize you. I hope they get you last,” he said, looking directly at Aries. “I hope they force you to watch them tear apart your friends
piece by piece. And only then will they turn on you.”

Michael spun back toward him again, the rage turning his vision bloody red. But Clementine was on him at once, whispering into his ear with her soft, beautiful voice.

“He’s not worth it,” she said. “Let it go. Let them all go. Don’t leave me.”

And he didn’t. “You’re not worth it,” he said to Heath. “But she is.”

Turning his back on the Bagger, he gave Clementine a tender kiss. “I love you,” he said. “Now let’s get everyone to safety.”

She nodded.

MASON

He sat on a bench down by the water and waited for the Baggers to come and get him. It didn’t take long.

“All that work for such little results,” a voice said behind him. “An entire rescue effort for nothing. You’re still here. I’ll bet your friends were very disappointed in you.”

He didn’t move or acknowledge the voice. If they were going to kill him, he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of getting a rise out of him first. No, he was done with all that. He’d accepted it; whatever they wanted to do to him was fine.

“Do you think you’ve won?” the voice continued. The Bagger stepped into view. It was Leon of course, surrounded by a few of his lackeys. He didn’t look as impressive anymore. His shirt was undone at the waist, and there was a sizable black smudge on his cheek.

Mason shrugged. “It’s not about winning.”

“Oh, but it is,” Leon said. He sat down on the bench beside Mason and pulled a small flask from his pocket. Twisting the cap off, he took a drink, and then offered it up to Mason. “Winning. Losing. It’s all about how you play the game, right?”

Mason took the flask and sniffed it. A strong alcoholic scent
hit his nose. He took a sip, enjoying the instant warmth as it slipped down his throat and into his stomach.

“I play the game very well, Mr. Dowell,” Leon said. “Better than anyone else. Why do you think they chose me to run this place? That is one thing I think you’ve greatly underappreciated about me. I like to win. And you may not know it yet, but I’ve won. Should I tell you how?”

He handed back the flask and looked out at the water. The crowds had dispersed; the majority of the prisoners had escaped into the dark city. The remains of the unlucky ones littered the pavement, but the casualties weren’t as bad as he’d feared. The surviving Baggers were out hunting now, trying to round back up whatever people they could find. Every few minutes he’d hear a scream or a shout as someone was torn from their hiding spot. He hoped that Casey had gotten out, but he probably wouldn’t know for sure until everything got settled back down.

“Most of the people in this camp were useless,” Leon said. “We were using them to help clean the streets, but they really meant little in terms of our future. Even the ones inside the casino—they’re all expendable. Small fish. The important people are kept elsewhere. So it doesn’t matter to us that a few escaped. Besides, we’ll round them all back up eventually.”

“You won’t get them all. That’s enough for me.”

Leon crossed his legs casually and stared out at the water. “You are a fool, Mr. Dowell.”

“Oh yeah? How do you figure that?”

“You could have run. You could have kept them safe. Instead, you destroyed everything that you hold dear. In one brief, shining moment, you signed her death warrant.”

“I kept her safe by not running,” Mason snapped. “Why else do I have this stupid thing on my leg? You would have just hunted me down. And her.”

Leon chuckled. “If you had run, she would have stood a chance. At least for a short period of time. You might have been able to protect her.”

“She does a good job of protecting herself, in case you hadn’t noticed,” he said. A seagull dropped in from the sky to attack a piece of litter on the ground in front of them. He inhaled deeply, smelling the sulfur and smoke from the smoldering buildings behind them. “They managed to do all this damage and still get away. Do you really think I worry about her safety? She’s stronger than all of us put together.”

“She has her Achilles’ heel, just like you have yours.” Leon took another drink from the flask, and the Baggers standing guard behind him smiled knowingly. “And you just tossed her right into the arms of her biggest weakness.”

Mason paused.

“She likes pretty boys, doesn’t she?” Leon continued. “She likes you, but there is one other that she can’t resist. You must hate that. Being second fiddle. Knowing that no matter what you do or say to impress her, you will never hold the first position in her heart.”

“She can do whatever she wants with Daniel,” Mason said as casually as he could manage. “It’s her decision, not mine.”

“Is she better than Chickadee? You never did get a chance with that pretty little bird either. She was too busy dying.”

“That’s none of your business.” The anger was strong in his voice. He tried to hold it back, but it was getting harder.

Leon stood up slowly, brushing out the creases on his pants. “Ask yourself this,” he said with a grin. “Do you really think I didn’t have this all planned out? Did you think your friend’s puny attack wasn’t on my radar? I knew it would happen probably before you did. Of course, I admit
I didn’t think your friends would end up doing quite so much damage. I might have underestimated that a little. Who knew those gutless wonders in camp would fight back too?” He looked around at all the dead bodies on the ground.

“You’re telling me you set all this up to try to trap Aries?”

“No.” Leon took another drink of his flask. “We set all this up because we want to take everyone down. There are still people hiding out there and we’re going to find them. This was a good location. It will be rebuilt and we’ll continue to bring people here to work.”

“But why Aries? Just because she’s managed to evade you for so long?”

“Like you, there’s something inside her that piques our curiosity too. A strength of sorts, perhaps. And like you again, soon we’ll have the chance to ask her about it. Do you think she’ll like the cattle prod? Not strong enough? How about battery acid on that pretty face of hers?”

“You’ll never get her,” Mason said, the grin appearing on his lips before he could stop it. “She’s too smart for you. She keeps proving that.”

“We’ll get her. It’s only a matter of time.”

Leon passed the flask over and Mason took another drink. Might as well, it wasn’t like he had anywhere else to be.

“Your friend Daniel, doesn’t he seem odd to you? Always so secretive? Sneaking off in the dead of night, never spending more than a few hours at a time with you. He’s been your ally all along, hasn’t he? Or maybe he’s lying. Perhaps he’s only doing all that because someone asked him to do it.”

Mason’s stomach turned to ice. Suddenly all of Leon’s hints made sense. Everything he knew about them . . .

“You just sent her off into the arms of one of us,” Leon said. “And the best part is, you were too stupid to notice.”

“No.”

Mr. Leon brushed off his pants one last time and then turned toward the other Baggers. “Take him back.”

ARIES

At least they were prepared this time.

She raced up the stairs toward the bedroom where Larisa, Claude, and Joy were trying to get Eve out of her bed. She was still under the influence of the sleeping pills and couldn’t seem to focus enough to know what was going on. Colin appeared from behind them, his face pale and terrified.

“Come on,” Aries said. “You know where to go! Let’s get there now!”