Numbers Game (28 page)

“So you threw him in prison, then tried to destroy his daughter?”

“Being empress is a tough job, Ametrine,” she snapped. “Since you’ll never experience it, I’ll enlighten you. Imagine dedicating your life to a group of people who admire you but then plot to overthrow you at the same time. With every bow, people scheme how to take your place. Your own friends and family members see you as competition.” She was so close she looked down on me now, a towering statue of disapproval. “You can’t even trust those who profess to love you. No, empress is not a title for the weak, and definitely not one for a teenage girl fresh out of Level Three school. So I’ll tell you how this goes. You will announce on a national broadcast that you lied, that any claim you had to the throne was fabricated, and then accept punishment. You will also turn over any other smugglers you’ve been hiding.”

I glanced at Tali. Her head was still down, her body tense. I knew she was hanging on every word. “You’ll kill me either way, so why would I agree to that?”

“Your little friend here. She’s a resilient one, but she’s been through a lot the past few days. It won’t take much more to break her.” The empress grabbed Tali’s hair, tipping her head back. Tali gasped.

It sent a painful ache through me down to my toes. She was alive, but barely. Tali was in this position because of me, and rescuing her was finally in my power. I’d wished for the opportunity to save her a hundred times. It seemed the fates had a very twisted sense of humor.

The empress held Tali in front of me like a prize, but it was about much more than threats. Giving up meant selling out the hundreds of people who had supported me, those who hoped for a better life and had made a stand. Hundreds of families waited silently in their homes tonight, waiting for fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters to come home. Those people believed that I could change their children’s futures. What kind of leader would I be if I gave in so easily? Was one person’s life worth the suffering of hundreds, even if it was Tali?

This was the type of decision an empress made, I realized. The worth of human life, one against hundreds, number against number. This was the very decision Vance had faced when the commander had offered him a deal—his family for his clan.

I was no better because there was no way I could turn Tali over to the empress. If it meant her safety, I’d arrest the rebels myself, one by one.

Tali’s eyes met mine, narrow and determined. Her expression seemed to say, “Don’t you dare.”

I fingered my necklace, familiar and comforting. Purple and gold, two colors in one stone. I thought of Vance, with one foot in each world and yet living in neither. My father, Jasper, protecting his family in his own way. My mother, turning away and burying her problems. There was a time to run and a time to fight.

Tali gave an imperceptible shake of her head. I could almost hear the words in my mind.

Let me fight
.

I settled my gaze on the empress. My stare seemed to unnerve her, and a flicker of uncertainty in her eyes gave me my chance. I thought of Vance and the father he’d lost. I thought of Jasper and the years this woman had taken away from us. I thought of her cold new punishment law, the poison pills, the lies and manipulation. I gathered all the anger within me at her injustices, at all the pain she’d caused, and my body began to tremble with rage.

At my expression, the empress took a step backward. I leaped and hooked her leg with mine, toppling us both. The empress lay on the ground, lips parted in a silent gasp, her dress twisted in a very unladylike fashion.

The guards were only a split second behind. One aimed his stunner at me, but Tali lowered her head and barreled toward him, hitting him right in the gut. He threw his arms around her and they tumbled to the ground together, Tali biting and kicking for all she was worth. I stepped aside just as a huge blast whipped by, and the other guard who’d tried to stun me growled. I didn’t wait for him to aim again—I rolled toward the empress.

“No!” she snapped, scrambling backward to get the footing to stand, and then she winced and glanced down at her ankle. I followed Tali’s lead and knocked her back down with my head.

There was a shout from somewhere and the sound of heavy footsteps headed toward us. I didn’t have much time. Both guards aimed their stunners at me, and I rolled closer to the empress to discourage them from shooting. She took that opportunity to wrap both hands around my throat and situated herself above me on her knees.

“Look what you’ve turned me into!” she growled. “You’ve ruined everything.”

Pain crushed my windpipe, and I saw black spots flashing across the empress’s crazed expression. I had a matter of seconds left. I heard Tali grunt, and then a guard shouted something, but my mind was swimming.
Think, Treena.

The empress’s techband caught my eye, silver and glittering in jewels like her uniform. If only I could get punishment mode to work.

She leaned forward, closer, and began to whisper. “You should have taken my deal. I had a much better death planned for you, but this will do. Good-bye, child.”

No. It’s still time to fight.

I gathered all the strength my weakened body contained, and with a mighty heave, bucked my hips upward. It unbalanced her enough that she broke contact. Just as she sat up, I swung my legs around and kicked. My foot connected with her forehead.

A strangled scream came from the empress as her hands shot to her head, and then she started to convulse. It took a few seconds for me to realize what I’d done. The implant. It was electronically connected to her techband. The band itself didn’t have punishment mode, but apparently her implant did.

The guards, who had been waiting uncertainly for a chance to attack, now watched in horror as the empress thrashed on the ground, writhing and kicking like a madwoman. Then she curled up on her side, let out a long, quiet breath, and was still.

I coughed, sucking air, and stared at the empress in horror. Her chest didn’t rise.

“Hands up,” the guard said with a look of fear and aimed the stunner at me. I raised my arms, too numb to fight. Tali lay on her back several meters away. I held my breath, but then she turned her head and looked at me. A tired grin spread across her battered face, and I smiled back.

It was then that the world exploded.

44

I
swiped a bike and sped through the city, but I was still far away when the missile shot overhead and disappeared into the distance. The explosion rocked the ground underfoot. I could almost hear the buildings around me rattling on their foundations. The streetlights flickered and died. I swore and pedaled faster.

Before long the air was heavy with dust. If it had been daylight, the sky would probably be solid gray. A fit of coughing forced me to stop and tear part of my sleeve to use as a mask. Citizens lined the streets in their nightclothes, their faces lined with worry. They looked toward the square, as if wanting to investigate but afraid of what they would find. I tried without success to shove my way through the crowds. Finally I gave up and ditched the bike, sprinting as fast as the crowd of spectators would allow me to.

I finally rounded the corner to the square, my lungs desperate for air. Smoke and dust rained on the still mounds of what looked like thousands of bodies of both civilians and soldiers. It was all too familiar. A gray-and-black sky, an eerie silence. My stomach lurched when I saw a woman, half her body blown away, try to push herself up with a groan. The sounds of soft moaning and sobbing filled the darkness. The only color was the red-orange flames scattered amidst the black-gray sky. Fire. It was always fire.

I was too late. If I hadn’t tried to run, I could have done something.

No. If I hadn’t run, I’d be one of these dead bodies. At least now I had a chance to look for Treena. I tried to force myself forward, but my feet seemed cemented in place. There probably wasn’t much left of her. Maybe it was better not to know, not to add her to the charred bodies that haunted my dreams.

“Help me,” a teenage boy mumbled and reached out his hand. He was pinned under a chunk of concrete, a different shade of black than the rest of the carnage around us. I clasped his hand and tried to pull. It was no use. The concrete was too heavy.

I glanced around for help and noticed a group of people standing between two buildings. They seemed frozen in place.

“Hey!” I shouted to them, then tore the cloth off my face. “Come help me!”

A man stepped out, and then two women. They took notice of the injured boy and trotted over. I waved to the rest of the group, but they hesitated before following. As they emerged, the group surveyed the damage, their faces registering a range of shock and horror. Some turned and hurried away. Others sank to their knees, their fists grasping shards of glass and dusty broken pieces of metal and rock.

The man reached me, shadows from the firelight flickering across his face, and I realized who it was. Anton. The women didn’t look familiar, but a few of the others did. The remnants of my clan were here, alive. A wave of relief swept over me.

“You take that side,” I told them and motioned to the concrete slab. “On three.”

We counted and gave a mighty heave. The cement didn’t lift at first, but with enough pressure to the corner, it finally gave and fell to the side. Anton jumped out of the way as it crashed to the ground and cracked apart. The teenage boy moaned, and one of the women knelt to examine him.

“We need to help,” I told Anton. “The city won’t recover from this for a while. They probably drew in their entire monitor force, and now there’s nobody left to help the survivors. They’ll have to send in forces from other cities. So right now, we’re it.”

“Or we can run while they’re distracted,” Rutner’s son Gavis said.

“You can,” I agreed. “But you won’t, will you?”

Most of them didn’t look at me, but a couple of them shook their heads and picked their way through the debris, covering their noses and mouths with their hands. Soon the square began to wake up with shouts of “Over here!” and “Help me lift this!”

Anton stood with hands in his pockets, staring at the ground. “I thought you’d run, Hawking.”

“I almost did. But I couldn’t abandon the clan again.”

“It’ll take more than lifting some cement to convince them of that.”

“I know. But it’s a start. I need your help, Anton. Will you split the volunteers into groups? Send each group to cover a different corner of the square and work toward the middle. Move the survivors over there, by the road, so they’re ready to transport when the emergency workers arrive. I’ll be back in a minute.” I turned and began making my way through the wreckage, half-expecting Anton to try to arrest me. Instead, he stared after me in disbelief.

It was impossible to tell who was who in the darkness. Each body was covered in gray dust and dirt broken up only by the dark blood splattered everywhere. “Treena!” I shouted, my voice echoing through the heavy air. “Can you hear me?” There was nothing but the groans of the injured, and more hands reached to me as I passed.

An elderly woman sat on an overturned piece of stone, head in her hands. “They took her through the palace gates.” A fit of coughing racked her body, and she turned away.

“Thanks.” I waded through the mess and past what had once been an impenetrable stone wall. The missile had struck the southwest wing of the palace, exposing several floors, which looked like my sisters’ dollhouse. Thick black smoke billowed from the inside. The fire cast a menacing glow on the wreckage. Most of the damage was centered where the palace’s flower garden had been, and now it was a charred, smoking crater. The rebels in the square would have been safe if not for the tall buildings that had come down around them.

I stared at the palace in dismay. They took her inside, most likely. But where? Had she made it to the other end of the building before the missile hit?

Before I made it to the main doors, a pile of bodies caught my eye. Several pairs of legs, mangled and lumped together, lay heaped up against the front wall. Through the dust, I saw the navy-blue corner of a palace guard’s uniform. I rushed over and started turning over bodies. Guard. Another guard. And then there was skin and a slender leg partly covered by sequined cloth. I shoved the rest of the bodies aside, and there she was, curled up in a ball like a cat. She lay still as death, her face pale beneath the streaks of black and matted blood in her hair.

“Treena,” I said quickly. “Can you hear me?” I took her hand and discovered it was still warm and soft. I felt the side of her slim neck for a pulse. Weak, but it was there. I put my ear to her mouth and felt her breath against my cheek.

“You are the luckiest girl alive,” I muttered. I lifted her and cradled her head against my chest. She didn’t even stir. Treena was alive, but she needed immediate medical attention. She’d get it if I had to carry her across the city to the hospital myself.

“I said I’d protect you,” I told her. “I’ve never failed to deliver on a promise so many times in my life.”

My foot caught on something and I nearly tripped. Steadying Treena in my arms, I glanced downward. It was a body covered in gray debris and twisted unnaturally. The head was bald and bloody. The face was bruised, although some of the bruises were in various stages of healing, and thick dark eyelashes framed the feminine features. She looked familiar, although I couldn’t place her. The strangest thing, though, was her expression. Her lips curved upward in a peaceful smile, her eyes softly closed in death.

I made my way back through the entrance, wondering how my father had felt as he died. I had to believe he’d felt a measure of peace amidst his violent end, knowing he was protecting those he loved.

The square was filled with volunteers now. Anton had taken charge, directing groups this way and that. The area near the street was nearly full of survivors already, some sitting and others spread out across the concrete. An emergency transport pulled up, its bright lights stabbing through the gray haze. I smiled to see Integrants and NORA citizens working together, calling out to one another and checking each body for signs of life. Reds, yellows, and greens, together as equals. Today it wasn’t about the numbers or even the place we’d come from. Today, it was about people.

Maybe there was hope for us after all.