Intermix Nation (16 page)

Lumi nods, like she’s expecting it. She sobs
then and Nazirah embraces her, crying too. She cries for Lumi and
for Aneira, for the Grigoris, for herself, for Nikolaus, for Cato,
for Riva and Kasimir.

And most surprisingly, or maybe most
unsurprisingly, she cries for Adamek.

Chapter
Twelve

“Osen, near the Eridian border,” Taj says,
shoveling food into his mouth.

A long month has passed since Aneira’s
funeral. The recruits are eating dinner outside on picnic tables.
Lumi doesn’t come out here much anymore, because the grounds hold
too many bad memories, but even she’s here today. She has become
thinner in the past few weeks, more withdrawn, and she eats beside
Taj quietly. Taj wraps a friendly arm around her.

“You’ll love Osen, Taj,” Ansel says
wistfully. “It’s so different from the Deathlands. There are
hundreds of crystal-clear lakes, rolling hills, evergreen trees
that fill the air with pine. And grass everywhere, greener than you
could ever imagine.”

“I’ve heard,” Taj says excitedly. “I can’t
wait to see it in person.”

Nazirah wishes she could see it too, the
land Kasimir once called home.

Cato chews thoughtfully. “What’s your
assignment there?”

Today, the recruits received their final
assignments, but Nazirah is anxiously still awaiting hers. The
recruits would soon be scattered throughout the territories,
helping the insurgents with defense, reconnaissance, medicine, and
so on. It’s their last test before reconvening at headquarters to
pledge their lives and hearts to the rebellion.

It’s their last chance to back out.

Taj shrugs. “Glumindo didn’t say much …
something about lumber.”

“Interesting,” Cato says. Nazirah begs to
disagree, but at least Taj knows what his assignment is. “Lumi,
what did you get?”

Lumi’s entire face lights up. “I’m going
back home, to Zima! I’m sure my father and Nikolaus had something
to do with it, but I’m grateful. It’s not in Kivar, my hometown in
SoZima. Obviously, I can’t go back there while my lunatic uncle
remains in power. But it’s enough. I’ll be working in a small
hospital near the Oseni border.”

“Maybe you can come visit me on the
weekends,” Taj jokes, winking a brown eye suggestively.

Everyone at the table laughs, including
Lumi. “You never know,” she replies coyly. “Cato, where are you
going again? The Red West, right?”

Nazirah tunes them out. Cato has already
told her, several times since this morning, about his mission. He
came to her room after breakfast, excited that he was assigned
recon in the Deathlands. Nazirah is glad he’s enthusiastic … but
the Deathlands are so dangerous and Cato is so gentle. Nazirah is
worried he won’t handle it well.

Or maybe Nazirah is the one not handling it.
Getting their final assignments has made training very real. They
will be true rebels soon, and then there really will be no turning
back.

“Irri, you’re quieter than usual,” Taj says.
“Not happy with your assignment?”

Nazirah squirms uncomfortably in her seat.
“Um, no,” she says. “I’m still waiting to get mine.”

“You haven’t been assigned?” Lumi asks. She
could always be counted on to restate the obvious.

Nazirah tries to seem nonchalant. “Nope,”
she says. “But I’m not the only one who hasn’t been assigned yet,
right?” Nazirah looks around the table, hoping to see someone nod.
But they all, even Cato, avert their eyes.

Crickets.

Nazirah knows what they’re all thinking,
because she’s thinking it too. Nikolaus is keeping her at the
compound, out of harm’s way. Because she’s his sister and because
he thinks she can’t handle it. A few months ago, this would be
exactly what Nazirah wanted. But lately, she wants nothing more
than to fight for every life that’s been lost, including her
own.

The recruits lie in the grass after dinner,
enjoying their last few hours together.

“I’m sorry you’re down about this, Irri,”
says Cato gently, broaching the topic after everyone else has left
their table. “Maybe it’s for the best? I know I’ll feel a lot
better with you safe here.”

“It’s not for the best!” she snaps. “I’m not
some damsel in distress! I don’t need to be locked away in a
tower!”

Cato looks perplexed. “That’s not what I
meant and you know it.”

“Do I?” she asks him honestly. “You and Niko
both baby me all the time, like I’m so fragile, ready to shatter at
a moment’s notice. I’m tired of it!”

“I feel very protective of you, Irri,” he
says. “I always have.”

“I know that,” she says. “And I appreciate
it. But I’m sick of sitting back and watching life pass me by.
Especially with the lives of so many others cut short. I feel like
I’m wasting the time I have. Like I should be doing more, taking
more risks … something! I just feel like I haven’t lived enough, I
guess. You know?”

It feels right, what she said.

She ignores the fact that those words aren’t
her own.

“Not really,” Cato replies honestly. “But I
support you in everything you do, Irri. And I’ll support you in
this.”

Nazirah watches children playing on the
swings. It feels like forever ago that she and Cato were doing the
same thing. Leaving their fears behind them and vaulting into their
future. It’s time Nazirah started swinging again.

“Thank you,” she says, rising from her seat.
“I’m just really upset. I need to go find Niko and see exactly
what’s going on. It’ll make me feel better to know.”

Cato nods encouragingly. “Okay,” he says.
“Remember Nazi, I can always stuff you in my suitcase and take you
to the Deathlands with me.”

A hint of a smile graces her face. “Funny,”
she says. “Wish me luck.”

#

Nikolaus isn’t hard to track down. Nazirah
finds him in the first place she looks. She knocks on his office
door before entering. He’s there, hovering over a huge map of
Renatus. Nikolaus glances up from his desk.

“Why do you look so surprised?” she
asks.

“Since when do you knock?”

Nazirah rolls her eyes. He and Cato would
make a great comedy act, at her expense. “Since now.”

“And you’re not even screaming or shouting at
me.”

“You’re jinxing it.”

Nazirah sits down, tapping her foot. Niko
looks painfully gaunt, as the stress of the impending war takes its
toll. His dark hair is longer, messier than he normally keeps it.
He hasn’t shaved in several days. He resembles Kasimir more and
more. “I was wondering when you’d show up,” he says.

“You were?”

“You look nervous.”

“Just hear me out,” she begs.

“Okay.”

Nazirah dives headfirst into the argument
she prepared on the short walk here, playing with the hem of her
skirt. “I know I said that I didn’t want to help the rebellion and
I wanted to run away and never come back. But I’ve changed my
mind.”

“You have?”

“Yes.” Nazirah plows on. “I do want to make
a difference! I do believe in what we’re fighting for! And I want
to help!”

“Irri –”

“You can’t keep me hostage here!” she
interrupts. “Doing nothing, trapped in this prison, while all my
friends are out risking their lives! I need to do something
worthwhile, for our parents, for myself! Or I will go insane. Do
you understand? I will completely lose it! You have to give me
something!”

“Nazirah –”

“I’m tired of everyone treating me like a
child every second of every day! Like I’m some sort of porcelain
doll! Well I’m not, okay? I can handle this, okay? And you know
what? I hate dolls! And besides,” she rants, breathless, “isn’t
this showing the exact same favoritism that you’ve been condemning?
It’s not even favoritism, Niko! It’s like anti-favoritism, because
I don’t even want –”

Niko slams his fist on the desk. “Nazirah,
shut the hell up for a second, will you?” He rubs his temples. “My
God, you’re exactly like Riva! You talk and talk and no one can get
a word in edgewise!”

“Sorry, but –”

“Shut up!” he yells. “If you had let me
speak from the beginning, you would know that I do have an
assignment for you!”

The door creaks open. Nazirah snaps her head
around, watching Adamek walk in with the silver Iluxor briefcase.
She hasn’t seen him in weeks, not since Aneira’s funeral. His
expression is unusually haggard, his hair is slightly tousled, and
there is intense sadness in his face. When he sees her, though,
every emotion is wiped clean, replaced by his usual mask. Nazirah
glances at Nikolaus. His eye twitches once.

“All right there, Morgen?” Nikolaus
says.

Adamek nods. “I didn’t realize you had
company.” He places the briefcase on Nikolaus’s shelf. “Just
returning this,” he says and leaves without another word.

The recruits haven’t had Iluxor training in
weeks. Nazirah doesn’t think Adamek gives private sessions. Why had
he borrowed it? “What was that about?” she asks Niko.

“Nothing important,” he says, brushing her
off. “Listen, back to what we were discussing before … or what you
were ranting about before … I’m pleased you want to help. And
you’ve misjudged me, because I have a special assignment for you.
It’s unusual and will be incredibly challenging. But I believe that
you’re the only person for the job.”

Nazirah sits on the edge of her seat in
breathless anticipation. “What is it?” she asks.

“For several months now,” he says, “the
recon team and I have formed strategic alliances throughout the
territories. Coupled with the information that Morgen and our
various spies have provided, including the city layout of Mediah,
we plan to seize the government in a coup within a few weeks. Our
ultimate goal is to surround them simultaneously from all four
directions. With the help of our allies, we’ll take over their main
government skytowers, strongholds, and symbols of power. The rest
will hopefully fall after that.”

Nazirah is stunned. “This is really
happening?”

“It is,” Nikolaus reassures her. “We plan on
taking out the Medi leaders in one fell swoop, replacing their
government with our own.”

“Which would be what, exactly?”

Nikolaus shrugs. “A democracy maybe,” he
says, “like they had in the Old Country. Maybe even something
socialist. We haven’t really thought about it much.”

“You haven’t thought about it much?” she
repeats.

“We’ll need a government where there’s
equality of opportunity for all races, including intermix, where
resources are distributed according to need, where people aren’t
segregated, are allowed to live where they want and marry who they
want. But the exact details are still up in the air.”

“Clearly.”

“Nazirah,” he sighs, “we have to figure out
how to win the war first. The rest comes later.”

Nazirah scoffs, shaking her head in
disbelief. “Do you really think it’ll be that easy? That’s your
grand plan? Throw the entire country into chaos and let the cards
fall where they may?”

“You’re simplifying it.”

“I’m not!” she cries. “You expect to defeat
the Medis like that?” Nazirah snaps her fingers. “They’re the
Medis, Niko! Not a band of Eridian school bullies! And even if we
do somehow miraculously win, you can’t just flick a switch in
people’s minds! Nobody is going to suddenly accept intermix into
the fold!”

“You think I don’t know
that?” he shouts. “But it’s worth a shot! Every revolution, every
change in history starts somewhere! Why not with us? Nazirah, we’ve
been lucky, if you can believe it. Most intermix don’t see
adulthood, poverty is so rampant. You said you wanted to do
something worthwhile, that you
needed
to do something worthwhile.
What’s more worthwhile than this?”

“But –”

“I’m not done!” he snaps. “The Medis try to
appear strong, Nazirah, because they are weak. It is our fear that
keeps them in power, not much else. They are the minority. They
spend all their money indulging in luxuries. Their troops are a
very real issue, but they are not insurmountable. And we will never
win with an attitude like yours.”

“And what happens to them?” she asks. “What
do you plan on doing with an entire race of people?”

Niko hesitates. “That, I cannot say.
Glumindo, Badoomi, and I disagree about what their fate should be.
Like most rebels, the other Commanders believe the surviving Medis
should be enslaved, shown exactly how we’ve suffered. But I am of a
different opinion. I believe that the majority of Medis are
innocent, blissfully ignorant about territory and intermix life.
For centuries, they’ve been fed propaganda. They’ve grown up on it,
grown fat on it. Why would they believe anything else?”

“Are you honestly justifying their
actions?”

“I’m not justifying anything! But I try to
understand their perspective. To me, punishing every Medi would
mean going against the ideal the rebellion is founded on … that
everyone is inherently equal. How could I knowingly commit an
entire race to a lifetime of servitude, because of the actions of a
few? That’s a death sentence I don’t want on my shoulders. I can
only hope the others will see reason.”

“So what exactly do you want me to do?”

“If we are to do this, Nazirah,” Niko says,
“I mean really do this … we need more support. We have a solid
foundation, but it’s not enough. We need human resources and
stronger alliances. A few well-meaning rebels will not win this war
for us.”

“Just spit it out,” she says.

“We need you.”

Nazirah is baffled. “Me?” she asks. “What
can I possibly do?”

“More than you probably know,” he responds.
“I was wrong to send you to the Deathlands, thinking no one would
recognize you. Everyone in the entire country, from Mediah to the
most outlying territory, knows who you are. Everyone knows your
face, your story, what happened to our parents.”