Liberty (10 page)

A world in which I would have a much harder time looking like I belonged.

I drew a sharp breath as I realized I was in the Settlement.

I clung to my silk scarf as a gust of wind tried to pull it from my face. I considered going back, but when I turned I saw the tallish man following me. My heart skipped a beat and I quickened my step. I scurried between strangers until I found myself behind a man wearing the most gorgeous suit I had ever seen. The cuffs of his jacket were very large, velvet, and covered in busy brocade. The tails draped down to his boots, and his ponytail brushed back and forth against his velvet collar. I tore my eyes away from his hypnotic ponytail just long enough to steal a glace behind me. To my embarrassment, the fellow I thought had been following me had sat down on a bench next to a richly dressed woman and a small baby carriage.

My sigh of relief was deep.

Reassured, I returned my gaze to the swishing ponytail of Mr. Green Velvet Suit, and followed him all the way down 1
^st
Avenue.

At last he stopped and turned into a plaza of some kind. A sleek, angular building soared into the air above me, the glass windows pristine and blinding in the sunlight. It was so different from the part of New York I had spent the past twenty-four hours in. So cle..... so steri..... so—

My breath caught in my throat. “Holy skud,” I whispered.

I had wandered straight into the System of United Nations Plaza. I whirled around to run back to McSorley’s and ran straight into Mr. Salazar.

“Tabitha Dixon, come with me.”

“Like skud, you snitch! You turned me in. You led that nutjob straight to me and
she shot down my ship!”

I tried to outmaneuver him, but he grabbed both my arms and started hauling me toward the plaza. I squirmed and wrestled, but he was far too strong for me.

“Who are you working for, anyway?” I asked. “Her? Them?”

“You have something that doesn’t belong to you.”

I glowered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m sure whatever it is doesn’t belong to her, either.”

I slammed my boot down on top of his shiny leather shoes. He repressed a groan of pain and kept walking.

“Your fighting spirit is admirable, but I assure you, it will only put you in greater trouble. If you cooperate, this will all be much easier. Now why don’t you—”

Suddenly his grip loosened and he fell in a crumpled heap to the ground. I screamed, jumped away from him and started running as fast as I could.

Which is when I heard the slow roar of a rocket pack.

I kept running until I felt myself being lifted off the ground.

“Are you
insane
?” Berrett yelled.

“Can we talk about this later?” I asked. “What did you do to him?”

“Rock. Back of the head.”

“Some arm you got there. Ever play ball?” I yelled.

“How can you think about
baseball
at a time like this?”

I bit down on my lower lip and held on tightly to Berrett’s arms. Sirens started to sound and suddenly we were being pursued by three agents with rocket packs.

Berrett swore under his breath. “Now they know who I am.”

“You don’t know that.”

“My pack has a license tag. I’m sure they’ve already scanned it. Hang on!”

Berrett veered to the right and shot through the trees. He pulled up hard next to the SUN building, so close I was concerned that if I flexed my toes they would hit the glass walls. Over a loudspeaker, I could hear the crackly voice of the agents behind us.

“Jordan Berrett, you are aiding and abetting known fugitive Tabitha Dixon. Release her to us and your sentence will be lessened.”

“Great. Just great.” He flipped backward and landed on the ground. The three agents surrounded us, and for a moment my heart stopped.

Was Berrett actually going to turn me in?

“I had no idea who she was,” he said. “She seemed to be in trouble. I was trying to help.”

One agent lifted the goggles away from his face. “Understandable, young man. You are a good citizen, but in this instance, the young woman you were rescuing was trying to evade our agents. Just hand her over, and I promise I’ll see to it that all charges against you are dropped.”

Berrett nodded.

“What?” I cried. I pushed out of his arms.

The sting of betrayal burned beneath my skin. I should have known.

He grabbed my arms and started walking toward the agents. Before handing me over, he whispered in my ear, “Jump.”

“What?”

“Jump!”

I leapt into the air. Berrett dropped to the ground and doused the agents in flames from his rocket pack. I landed above his head and stared as the agents tossed away their own packs and rolled around on the ground, trying to eliminate the fire that was rapidly devouring their pants. In a matter of seconds, Berrett had snatched and destroyed the agents’ handhelds.

“That ought to buy us some time, but they’ll remember my name,” said Berrett. He typed something into his Cuff, scooped me up once more, and spun quickly into the sky. We flew in complete silence until we arrived at a park outside the state lines.

“Were you dropped on your head as a child?” yelled Berrett the second we landed. “Seriously,
what is the matter with you
? I gave you specific instructions and you totally ignored me! It’s one thing to leap out of a ship when your life is the only one you’re endangering, but—”

“Look, if this is about you playing Captain Adventure or having issues with my lack of manners, I
said
thank you. I didn’t ask you to save me! How did you know where to find me, anyway?”

“Tess. I got back and you were gone. She said you went exploring, that I’d just missed you, and that she’d given you specific instructions to lie low and stay close. I flew all over the city. Do you have any idea how dangerous—”

“
Yes
. I do. Now would you stop lecturing me?” I realized mid-sentence that I was shaking. I hoped to high heaven that Berrett couldn’t see.

“Fine,” said Berrett. “However, instead of feeling bad that it was the only thing I could find, I am going to take an abnormal amount of pleasure in this.”

“What are you talking about?”

Berrett pulled a horrible floral dress and a dark brown wig out from his pack.

“Oh no,” I said. “I am not wearing that dress. Where did you find that, the history museum?”

“You have to wear it, Ms. Fey. It’s for your own protection.”

I stared at him. “Ms. What?”

He gave me a cock-eyed grin. “Morgan L. Fey. It’s your new alias. You wanna see the paperwork?” He tossed me a small purse with a set of new fingertips and contacts inside.

My eyes flew open wide. “You named me after
Morgana
?”

“Well, you must admit, you can be a little witchy.”

W
E LANDED IN THE MIDDLE OF A CRACKED COBBLESTONE
street far narrower than I would have thought possible. Humidity sucked the sweat from my pores and the air was so thick I practically had to chew and swallow it first in order to breathe.

“Storm’s coming,” said Berrett.

“How do you know?”

“Feel like you’re choking on your own air?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s how I know.”

I had no clue where I was, no concept of which direction we were going as Berrett held my hand and pulled me through the maze of streets and alleyways. I hadn’t realized how tired I felt until I tried to keep pace with Berrett. My stomach ached with hunger and made me feel lightheaded. We passed a pub in the darkness that threw a little light into the shadows. The smell of the greasy food wafted through the air and jolted my senses.

“Food,” I whimpered.

“Hang in there,” said Berrett. A youngish man dressed in grungy clothes sat on the steps of the place, using a switchblade to clean the dirt out from under his fingernails. He sent shivers up my spine.

“Hey, Jordan. How’s it going?” he asked.

“Been better,” Berrett said as he hustled past.

“You headed to Caleb’s?”

Berrett stopped in his tracks. “Should I be?”

“You were already planning on it, right? All I’m saying is, follow through is a good thing. There’s about fifteen of ‘em guarding your house. Hurry, there’s more headed this way.”

Berrett swore under his breath.

“She’s okay. She made it over there.”

Berrett exhaled and nodded to the man. “Thanks.”

He nodded in reply. “Get movin’.”

“She?” It hadn’t occurred to me that Berrett might possibly have a girlfriend. I mentally kicked myself for having let so much of my guard down. “How long have you been together?”

Berrett shot me the strangest look, and then jerked me forward. I stumbled over myself as I tried and failed to navigate my way over the broken road. My eyes grew heavier as we passed the drugged and the drunken. Somewhere in the background I heard glass breaking.

“Where on Earth are you taking me?” I hissed. “Who the flark is Caleb?”

“My shipmaster. I just hope she made it out in time.”

“She? I am so confused. I thought Caleb was a guy’s name.”

He ignored me and continued to drag me along the cobblestone streets.

“Berrett?”

“What?”

“Food?”

“We’re almost there. Stop whining and keep moving. You’re fine.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him I wouldn’t be moving anywhere if I passed out from lack of sustenance. We half-ran toward a small strip of townhouses with overgrown yards and dingy windows. Berrett knocked a strange rhythm on the chipped and banged up door of the third row house.

The door flew open and we were dragged inside.

Warmth washed over me. A flurry of voices. An older woman sobbing, Berrett swept up in her arms. The world spun, and I sank to my knees.

“Jordan! Honey, grab her,” said a voice. I had no idea who was talking, I could barely see. Stars floated in front of my eyes.

“She was whining about food,” said Berrett.

“When did you all eat last?”

“Breakfast.”

“I’ll get her something.”

A knock sounded on the door, but the ringing in my ears made it impossible to decipher what the muffled voices were yelling on the other side.

“Jordan, get the girl and your mother into the safe room.”

I still couldn’t see much. I felt someone lift and carry me down a flight of narrow stairs and into a hidden closet.

“Not a word. No lights. No noise.”

The door clicked shut.

Good thing I’m not claustrophobic.

I heard another knock, fiercer than the last. This time I heard what the voice on the other side had to say.

“Open up! System Police.”

I bit down on my lower lip and tried to quell the shivers that were slowly possessing me. There were voices, a tense discussion. I heard furniture outside the closet door being overturned. I tried to make my breaths silent, but I couldn’t stop the pounding of my heart. It was so loud, I was certain it would give us away.

The seconds warped into millennia.

At last I heard the front door close. All was quiet.

“You still with me?” whispered Berrett.

“Mmmph,” was the closest I could manage to a reply.

“She’s in shock, honey. We need to get her upstairs.”

The closet door opened and I felt myself being pulled into the light. Gentle hands took my pack and guided me into a chair. Food was placed in my hands, a cold cloth on my forehead.

As the rush of adrenaline faded, I found it almost impossible to keep my eyes open, but there were too many questions. I tried to pay attention and put the pieces together.

If only I didn’t feel so flarking disoriented.

“Dix!”

“Huh?” I rubbed my eyes and tried to wake myself up.

“She’s exhausted, Jordan. We should get her to the cellar so she can sleep,” said one of the women. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was tucked behind her ears. She was petite, pale, her blue eyes puffy from crying. She was the complete physical opposite of Berrett.

“Okay, Mama,” he replied.

“Wait ... Mama?” I asked.

“Mama B., honey,” she said. She extended her hand. “I’m so glad you both made it here safely. Jordan warned me just in time.”

I shook her hand and looked at Berrett, confused. He pointed to his Cuff.

“Wouldn’t they have tracked that?” I asked.

“They have no idea what ‘don’t forget the mac and cheese’ means, and if you’ll recall, I switched it off before we left New York,” said Berrett.

“Oh. Right.” I stared at our hosts, a small brunette woman and a large man with broad shoulders and dreadlocks the color of sand. They didn’t seem to pay much attention to me. Their focus was on rearranging the overturned furniture.

Berrett followed my gaze. “I’ll introduce you tomorrow. You need to rest.” Without a word, I took his hand and let him pull me down the hall and into a small but tidy bedroom. He pulled away a rug, lifted up a trapdoor in the floor, and motioned for me to climb in. My foot found the top stair and I descended into the darkness. Berrett shined a light down for me so I could see my way.

“There’s a candle on the wall,” he said, tossing my pack down to me. I rooted around in my pack for my lighter as I walked down a narrow hallway with three small doors.

“Your room is the farthest one on the left. The bathroom is that skinny door at the end of the hall right next to your room. Goodnight, Tabitha.”

“’Night.”

I was too exhausted to care he had called me Tabitha again, but I had to smile when I overheard him say, “She must be out of it.”

I turned the handle and went inside. A small candle rested on a dresser. I lit it, and it cast strange shadows around the tiny room. Shelves lined with food hugged the walls, and in the center were two air mattresses and a pile of bedding. The floor was cement, but clean. I threw down my pack, laid on the bed, and stared at the ceiling. I felt so tired, but now that I had a place to rest, sleep eluded me.

I could just hide here,
I thought.
Find a job.

I could
...
could
....

Never feel the power of a ship beneath my hands again.