The Letting (27 page)

“And so we reach a stalemate,” Brooke states flatly.

“I could just kill you and be done with it.” I still have my gun pointed at her.

“Really?” Brooke asks, her large eyes widening. “But there are a couple of problems with that. First, as soon as my camp hears a gunshot, they’ll come running. And when they see me dead, they’ll kill you. They wouldn’t care if your blood was pure gold.”

“It is.”

“Second,” Brooke continues without missing a beat. “Second, you’re not a killer. Or so you say.”

“Not a child killer. I have no problem with an overinflated old woman.”

“Tsk, tsk, an old woman at twenty-one, huh?” she smiles again. “Maybe so. But lastly, he won’t let you kill me.” She points at Phoenix. “We have too much history, don’t we Phoenix?”

“What Veronica does is not up to me,” Phoenix states definitively, clenching his jaw.

“Oh, I see...How incredibly weak of you. Not your best quality I must say.”

“So, what’s going to happen, Brooke?” Phoenix asks.

“Well, I guess that’s up to you, isn’t it?” She bats her eyes at Phoenix. “You two stay the night with me here at my camp, as guests, and tomorrow morning I’ll give you a bike to go save your precious little girls.”

“Why would you do that?” I ask.

“Because in exchange, I get what I want from Phoenix.”

“And what’s that?” he asks.

“You know.” Brooke pats his arm.

“Not going to happen, Brooke,” he responds.

“Stay with me tonight for old times’ sake. I’m not asking you to do anything you don’t want to do,” she lets her fingers walk up his forearm. “Though if memory serves, there’s nothing you don’t want to do.”

“Brooke, that’s enough! Why would you want that?” he asks, genuinely confused.

“Because I want her to ache.” Brooke looks at me.

“Why?” I ask.

“Because I had a beautiful life built on destroying you,” she explains, looking directly at me. “Then one day I realized his obsession was no longer based on hatred. And he threw me aside to go find you.”

“That’s not what happened,” Phoenix corrects.

“Your life can’t be beautiful if it’s built on hatred,” I say. “Don’t you get that?”

“What I get,” she snaps, “is what I want. Or I kill him. And turn you over to Farnsworth. Simple.” She is right. It is simple. This was the one scenario we didn’t plan for: traitorous rebels.

“Fine,” Phoenix spits.

“What?” Brooke sounds surprised.

“What?” I am appalled.

“I’ll stay with you tonight,” he informs Brooke. Then he turns to me. “It’s the only way.” He turns back to Brooke. “On one condition. I want to see the motorbike. Make sure there is a real payoff for us.”

“Of course. Right this way.” She walks us out of her boudoir and into the oppressive heat of her camp. “There.” She points to a field not far from the tents. “There are seven of them.” Phoenix is staring hard at the bikes.

“Keys?” he asks.

“You haven’t changed a bit.” She smiles. “Tonight should be lots of fun.”

She is toying with him, and her words make me want to vomit.

“Oh all right.” She speaks in a normal tone. “The keys are in the ignitions. No need to hide them. No one steals from me and lives.” Brooke looks pointedly at me then at Phoenix and smiles. “Shall we?” Brooke asks, slipping her hand in his, exactly where mine should be.

“What about Veronica?” he asks.

“She’s welcome to watch.” There’s a lilt of optimism in her voice.

“I’ll pass,” I hiss. “I’m sure I won’t be missing much.”

“Your loss,” she giggles, sounding sugary sweet. “Why doesn’t Veronica sit right there then?” She points to a tree stump just outside her tent. “I’ll get someone to fetch a sleeping bag for her in case she gets sleepy.” I plop down on the stump, unable to comprehend the surrealism of the situation. “Oh all right, she can go in there if she wants.” Brooke points to an empty tent directly across the way.

“No one touches her,” Phoenix orders.

“No one does anything around here without my permission,” Brooke snaps.

“Fine. Then make sure you tell them not to touch her. I’m going to check out the bikes.”

“Don’t trust me?” Brooke asks, batting her eyes again.

“Never have.” Phoenix walks away. As soon as Phoenix reaches the bikes, Brooke turns to me, her eyes red with anger.

“You’ll never completely have him you know.”

“I already do,” I tell her, smiling. She looks at me, confused. In my heart, I know what Phoenix had said to me is right. Farnsworth could never have what’s in my heart, and Brooke could never have what’s in his. Brooke looks toward Phoenix. I see the beauty in her profile, but I also see the anger. “Brooke, I know it’s none of my business, but, how did you end up here?”

“At this camp?” she asks, turning to me.

“At this camp, yes, but also in this position as an angry leader. How does a woman who looks like you end up here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Suddenly I realize her hatred for me is based on jealousy and not just dislike. She looks at Phoenix and then back to me. “I’m an AB. You know there are so many of us. Always have been a glut.”

“Until now,” I say sadly, and she nods, agreeing.

“But when I was young, there were plenty of AB’s. There weren’t plenty of girls who looked like me. So they let me stay with my mother with the understanding that as soon as I turned fourteen, I would be matched for the Couplings.”

“At fourteen?” I’m disgusted. Brooke only nods.

“So, for my fourteenth birthday my mother paid someone—a Traveler—to take me as far from the city as he could. I think she had hoped my beauty would get me into the Inferno, and there I could blend with the locals until I was old enough to marry. The first Traveler she hired took me to the other side of the city and dumped me. He took her money and ran. The government officials found me and knew I’d be easy to match. But because I’d run, Farnsworth made my first match with Lucus.”

“Lucus?”

“The man you met when you first came in. He’s nice enough,” she looks down at her feet when she says this. “But he’s not the man a fourteen-year-old wants to be matched with.”

“I would say not.” I think of Lucus’s greasy, gray hair and festering, bulbous nose.

“Farnsworth claimed together there was a chance for better than an AB.”

“How did you escape?” I ask, my attention rapt.

“Lucus couldn’t believe his luck. He was enamored by my beauty. I told him he could be with me that one time, and I would make him hate every moment of it, or we could escape the Coupling house together and run. I told him if he helped me break free, he could be close to me always, just not in a Coupling way.”

“It worked?”

“He couldn’t bear the thought of being without me.” She shrugs.

Then I think of something. “Everyone I’ve seen at this camp is male. Is that what you do? Use your beauty to control men and make them do whatever you want?”

“Worked every time except one.” She looks at Phoenix. Brooke straightens up and pulls down the waistband of her fitted shirt. We’ve become much too chummy. “Phoenix,” she calls, and he puts up a hand to wave to her. Within moments, he has come over to us. He walks up to me.

“I will get you as soon as I can.” He lets his hand linger on my cheek before he drops it and turns away. Brooke takes Phoenix’s hand and leads him into her tent, smiling at me over her shoulder.

Chapter Twenty-One

For two hours, I’ve been sitting on this stump staring at Brooke’s tent. Something perverse is holding me here. My mind keeps telling me to hop on a bike and take off, but my heart has nailed my feet to the earth. For two hours, the boy I care about more than I ever thought possible has been in a hot, dark, romantic tent with a stunning woman who wants him. Countless times, I wanted to barge in but was afraid I would see something I could never forget. Yet, despite it all, my heart tells me to stay put.

I stare at the stars in the sky and wonder so many things. Do my girls see these stars, or are they locked up somewhere with blood-sucking machines attached to them? What about Gretchen? How is she, and what has she decided to do? Where are Gunnar and Lulu? Will Lulu ever come back to me? A shooting star passes overhead, but I don’t need to wonder about that one. “Hello Mom,” I whisper. Suddenly everything feels okay and the emptiness in me is filled with warmth and security. A mother’s love will transcend all.

Seconds later, Phoenix rushes out of Brooke’s tent. “Ronnie,” he whispers, holding out his hand. “Let’s go.” I stand up and look at it, but I just can’t take his hand. I latch my fingers around the straps of my backpack to make it seem like my hands are otherwise engaged. Together, we walk quickly but steadily to the bikes. Phoenix tilts a bike upright and pushes up the kickstand. Quietly he rolls the bike forward, and I walk beside him in silence. It’s difficult moving through the darkness, but when we are finally a mile or so clear of Brooke’s camp, Phoenix mounts the bike and turns the key. I see him exhale when the engine turns over.

“Hop on.” He nods his head to the seat behind him and I climb on.

The bike is fairly small, and we are cramped on the seat, but I am eternally grateful for the ride.

“We should have a fighting chance. Gunnar is moving a large group on foot. We’ll stay ahead of him with this. Wrap your arms around me,” he shouts over the roar of the engine.

I hesitate, but then I put both arms around his abdomen just to keep from falling off. My head leans forward, and I rest it on his back for a second, allowing myself to forget what just transpired between Phoenix and Brooke. Phoenix strokes my hand, holding it for a moment, and then we are off.

Mile after mile we ride, pushing the bike to its limit. Pure adrenaline works its way through me, and I give my body over to the movement of the bike. I sway through every turn and dig my nails into Phoenix’s abdomen as he pushes the bike faster and faster. I am caught up in the pure ecstasy of the machine, but still have nothing but time to think. I wonder, over and over again, what we will do once we reach the Letting facility? How will we get in? How will I find the girls? And how will we save them? Slowly the woods fall away behind us, and we are on open roads. These roads lead to more roads and then even more. I look ahead to the multilane highway with trepidation. It is proof we’ll be in the Inferno soon.

“We have to cross a huge bridge,” I yell, and Phoenix nods. One wrong turn and we’ll end up back in the city. Before we reach the open highway, Phoenix pulls over to a tiny rest stop with a gas pump.

“We need gas,” he explains. “We’re on empty. We’ll have to steal some somehow, or there’s no way to keep going. If we abandon the bike and hitchhike, there’s a real chance we’ll be recognized. We are running the risk even here.” He looks around warily. “You’re infamous by now.”

I nod. “So what do we do?”

“You’ll have to distract the owner of the gas pump while I siphon gas from one of his other vehicles.”

“Okay, should I distract him the same way you distracted Brooke?” I know it’s incredibly petty, but I can’t seem to help myself. As soon as I say it, I’m immediately regretful.

“Sorry,” I mutter. Phoenix doesn’t acknowledge me. We both look around at an incredibly empty lot.

“There has to be some vehicle we can siphon from in the back,” Phoenix decides. “How about we worry about getting gas first, then we’ll deal with our personal stuff later.”

“Fine,” I mumble, embarrassed. We roll the bike around to the back and find an old man sitting on a tattered lawn chair. He has a distressed hat pulled down tightly over his eyes, and his arms are crossed in front of him, cradling a shotgun. He sits under a lone lamp, attached to the building.

“Is he asleep?” I whisper.

“Even when I’m asleep, I’m awake,” the old man chortles, startling us both.

“Oh, well, hello,” Phoenix exclaims. “We need some gas. Can you help us out?”

“You got money?” the old man asks.

“Not exactly. But I do have opportunity.”

“What’s that?” The old man lifts his hat and looks at us. I take a step back into the darkness, hoping he doesn’t recognize me.

“Opportunity, for a better life. Help us out here and give us enough gas to get us into the New World.” I notice he is careful not to call it the
Inferno
. “We can promise you a better life.”

“How’s that?” the old man asks, sounding interested.

“I’m Phoenix Day.” I’m touched he’s used the name I gave him. “I’m the leader of the Peaceful Revolution. I am heading to the New World to free us all from their clutches.”

The old man chuckles, and I look at Phoenix. He is unwavering.

“Oh, I know who you are.” The old man wheezes as he speaks. “And I know your girlfriend there, too. You’re the boy who started off with all that promise, but who never rallied the people like we all hoped you would.”

“Yes,” Phoenix replies quietly. “That’s me.” I slip my hand into Phoenix’s and squeeze.

“And your girlfriend there,” the old man points at me. “Well, she’s Veronica Billings. Thing is,” he raises his gun, “I just don’t know whose side she’s on at this moment.”

“I’m on the right side.” I stand tall in front of this man.

“Well, I’m glad to hear it.” The old man looks up at me. “But whose right is it? Yours or mine?”

“I’m hoping they’re the same.” I am painfully aware with every endless second we stand here, the girls are being Let. And then there’s Brooke, who must be on her way to find us and seek revenge by now.

“You want me to give you some gas so you can go make another lame attempt to overthrow the government? Why would I do that? May not be a lot, but Principal Leader Farnsworth makes sure I have food on my table and gas in my pump. He’s the reason I can make a living. For me and my three boys up there.” The old man nods to the house behind us.

I look at the house and in each of three separate windows, I see a tall young man pointing a shotgun straight at us.

“Just a little protection,” the old man chuckles to himself. “So, by the sound of it, all you’re offering me is a free-for-all, and I ain’t interested in that.”

“Fine…” Phoenix responds, never completely discouraged. “But if you’d just listen to our reasons—”