Elite (Citizen Saga, Book 1) (24 page)

Oh, how I hated him.

"Daughter," he said, a term he only used when I had truly misbehaved. He knew I loathed it. He knew I despised the idea that he took the place of my father. He wielded the word with precision.

I watched as he got up from his chair, unharmed in the previous battle, and walked toward me, crouching down close enough to deliver his final blow.

"You have learned your lesson?" he asked, gripping my hair and pulling my head up off the floor with roughness.

"Yes, Father," I replied, and slammed the shard of glass into the side of his throat.

He staggered backwards, as the drones buzzed and then stormed forward.

And the door to the room blew off its hinges as two figures rushed in.

One shot the closest drone. It fell, cracking the tiles as it hit, my body shuddering with the force of impact. The other took out the remainder, making the buzzing I'd heard, for what felt like hours, suddenly disappear. I blinked, shook my head, and then looked up at an incapacitated General Chew-wen. His hand covering the gash in his throat, red staining his dinner jacket, dripping onto the white floor beside him.

"Good shot, Lena," Alan said, walking over to face Chew-wen, his gun raised, aimed at the Chief Overseer's eyes making his intention quite clear.

Trent knelt down beside me, his eyes flicking over to the still form of Aiko.

"I'm sorry," he said, rather formally.

"Tan?" I asked, my throat aching with just that one word.

"Alive," Trent replied. He didn't mention Zikri and Damia, but I saw the pain of their loss on his face.

We all wore it.

"Wang Chao?" I whispered, and wished I could have taken the words back as soon as they were out.

Trent stood abruptly, his face shutting down and effectively distancing himself from me. A wall coming back up between us. More solid than if it had been made of stone. He turned to Chew-wen.

"Your son is dead," he announced, ice encasing him, making the words sound more chilling than they should have. Despite their message.

I sucked in a shocked breath of air, but found I had no tears for my former childhood playmate. For the man who had tried to force my hand in marriage. What had my world come to that I would feel nothing at the death of someone I'd once thought a friend?

"No," Chew-wen gasped, but it was just air, his voice unable to make the necessary sounds required to talk anymore. I studied him, dispassionately. Thinking an inch to the right and he'd be dead. Wondering if it was regret at having missed his jugular that I was feeling. Or just the onset of unconsciousness.

"And now it's your turn," Alan advised, softly. The world halting in such a bizarre way I swear I could see the bullet spinning as he fired a single shot right into my guardian's forehead.

I stared, mesmerized by the slowly oozing hole, and then slumped to the floor.

It was over. Wánměi was free.

And I'd never felt so lost before.

She passed out just as Shiloh units could be heard sounding an alarm throughout the Palace. I rushed to haul Lena into my arms as Alan returned with Lee Tan slung over his shoulder. I glanced down at the fragile form cradled against my chest, noted the paleness to her make-up smeared face and the swelling on the side of her head; the cause of her loss of consciousness, at a guess. And I knew I could no further leave her here to her fate than I could deny who I was.

She knew now. She knew every secret I had. My father had killed her father. I was Mason Waters' son. Leader of a band of revolutionaries who at last contact had been destroyed. Si was not answering the earpiece, abandoning the hub under attack from Shiloh drones. Last communique indicating we'd taken a solid hit.

Carla was dead.

Kevin hadn't made it.

Six others down before contact was lost.

I had to pray that Si had slipped through, he was wiry and clever, if anyone could outsmart Shiloh, he could. But where we'd go now, I just didn't know.

Alan and I made our way through the mass of Elite trying to evacuate the Palace in a moment that should have surely made the Wánměi history books. Defying a direct command from those sPol drones that had returned to establish order. Operated, I was beginning to fear, not by Cardinals, but Shiloh. Just what the hell Chew-wen had done to her, I did not know.

No one questioned us holding unconscious bodies in our arms, several of the Elite had fainting women in theirs. But one or two glances were thrown Alan's way. His was not a uniform worn at
Ohrikee
. Despite their wary observation, though, no one raised an alarm.

Something had happened tonight. Something more than the overthrowing of a dictator and the freedom of a nation. Something tentative and precious, something I didn't want to trust yet.

The Elite here had open eyes, but would they stay open in the coming days?

In a perfect world, which was ironic because Wánměi was meant to be that world, Alan and I would have taken over control of the Palace and started to help the nation toward a healthier future. But as more and more Shiloh controlled drones stormed the building, it became apparent that our struggle wasn't over. The battle won, but the war still stretching ahead.

We needed to regroup and reassess. We'd been small before, now I feared we were non-existent. Was it worth it? So much death and destruction for what? One man and his son? I feared there would be more to follow them, but as I met the alert gazes of those Elite around me, I could only hold my breath and pray that the tide had turned.

No longer complacent. No longer dulled and ration dosed, they'd woken up to their surroundings and found them wanting.

It was a victory of sorts, but clouded in the uncertain.

We made it to Alan's car, parked three blocks away. So many Elite on the streets, and not enough limousines to cater for them, had in the end provided cover enough to slip through the net. Shiloh was on a rampage though and I couldn't help thinking she might be a more formidable foe than Chew-wen. At least the man had loved Wánměi. What would a computer programme do?

"Where to?" Alan asked and the weight of silence filled the car.

The hub was out, and if they'd discovered the hub, then they would have discovered the router apartment in
Hillsborough.

"Harjeet?" I suggested.

"I don't trust him," Alan snarled.

"Neither do I, but where else? We can't hide on the streets. Those drones were regrouping."

Alan shuddered, no doubt thinking disturbing thoughts about Shiloh as well.

"
Wáikěiton
," Lena murmured from my lap. My eyes darted down and found blindingly beautiful pale blue staring back up at me.

"Is it safe?" I asked, falling deeper into those pools of blue with every breath.

Why did she do this to me? When I knew she was just like the rest of them. Only waking up now from General Chew-wen's haze.

She couldn't be trusted. She'd sell us out to protect Lee Tan. The last surviving member of her chosen family.

And despite this knowledge, I wanted her to choose me.

"Wang Chao kept that identity to himself," she explained, holding my gaze when I thought she'd look away on her former fiancé's name. Challenging me with her steady look.

She did strange things to me, this woman I should not trust. Strange and delightful things.

"Lena Carr is safe," she said, a small smile curving her lips. A smile that I knew cost her, tonight of all nights.

"OK," I said, "
Wáikěiton
it is."

I watched as Alan changed lanes, taking us in the direction of
Elliott
Street and our new found safe house, and then found my eyes drifting down to the woman still lying in my lap.

I swallowed, then forced myself to look away. Losing myself in her spellbinding gaze would only hurt in the end.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, when the sounds of rain against the windshield started to drown out the night.

"For what?" I asked, determinedly looking out of the side window. Seeing nothing. Feeling too much.

"For everything," she murmured and then promptly fell asleep.

Alan's eyes came up to mine in the rear vision mirror, a knowing look crossing his façade, which was instantly shadowed by grief. We'd lost a lot of people tonight, but I'd forgotten he knew Aiko Tan. The pain of her death carved heavy lines on his face, too.

"Put the main channel on," I suggested, just needing something to occupy my mind.

The vid-screen flicked down from its hiding place in the roof of the car and a news report flashed vibrantly, lighting up the dim interior of the car. Lena awoke instantly, letting me know she was a light sleeper. A snippet of insight that shouldn't have meant so much. Her eyes moved to what had caused all breath to leave my lungs and my body to have tensed beneath hers.

Alan rolled the car to a gentle stop at the side of the road, looking down at his own vid-screen on the dashboard. He glanced over his shoulder towards me.

"I thought you said..." he started.

"I thought I had," I offered, staring into the marred, but determined face of a very alive Cardinal Chew-wen Wang Chao on the screen.

The words scrolling across the bottom read,
The newly appointed Chief Overseer.

"Fuck," Alan hissed.

"I guess
Wáikěiton
is out," I offered.

Silence. And then a soft hand cupped my cheek forcing me to look down.

"This isn't how it ends," Lena vowed, and the conviction of her words made the world stand still.

I stared into blue the colour of a promising morning sky and fell a little deeper.

Then I reached down, clasped the nape of her neck, bringing her closer. Never wanting to let go again. Her arms wrapped around my shoulders without hesitation, as her soft body moulded to the hardness of mine, and I pressed my lips to hers.

To hell with history. To hell with what had brought us here.

I kissed her as though the world was ending. I kissed her as though we'd just survived death. I kissed her the way I'd wanted to kiss her from the moment I first saw her somersaulting off Wántel's impossibly high roof.

"Harjeet's it is," I heard Alan say quietly, as the car pulled back into traffic.

And still... I kissed her.

The Elite I shouldn't trust but couldn't help wanting. The woman whose fiancé was now Wánměi's leader and would be out for revenge.

And still... I kissed her.

Knowing she'd likely bring my death. But right then it didn't seem relevant. Right then, nothing else did. But her lips, her hands, her body.

Lena Carr, a Citizen who didn't actually exist.

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Read an Interview with Trent Masters

Read on for the first chapter
of the next instalment in the hot, new Dystopian Romantic Suspense,
Citizen Saga
:
Cardinal
.

Have you been a model Citizen today?
Lena Carr is a Citizen who does not exist. Being invisible can have its advantages, but not when the Chief Overseer knows what your alias is. She can no longer use the gift her father left her.
But she also can't walk the streets as the Elite she was born to be...
The Cardinals are closing in, and one in particular has Selena in his sights. With revolution on the Citizen's minds and hope in the form of a rebellious Elite exhibiting non-model behaviour, the Overseers crack down on dissension. Causing chaos on the streets and blood to flow.
For his "Zebra" Trent Masters would do anything. Risk his life. Face the increasingly sentient drones head on. Kill. But there's one thing he will never do - jeopardise the rebellion. Funny thing about love though, sometimes it can make liars of us all.
But that's not his only dilemma. Selena's up to something, and if Trent knows his Elite, he's sure it's going to be reckless. Throw in a manipulative benefactor and a decimated revolutionary base and Trent can't tell which way holds more danger. But the Cardinal, hell bent on his destruction, sure looks like he's in the lead.
Citizen versus Cardinal. The battle has begun.