Rebel Nation (7 page)

Jude sat on the floor, with his back against the wall across from Isaiah's door. “We aren't.”

“What are you doing?”

“
We're
waiting for them to figure out that this is the right thing to do. Sit down.”

—

Half an hour after Isaiah locked them out of his
room, he came out with Bridget. They both stopped short when they saw Jude, Clover, and Mango sitting in the hallway.

Clover thought they looked resigned. That was good. “Ready?”

“I don't like this,” Isaiah said. “But if I can't talk you two out of it, then I can't talk her out of it. And if she goes, I go.”

Isaiah shifted his shoulders, as if to let them know that he didn't care one way or the other. He cared, though. Clover saw it written all over his posture and the hard set to his face.

Isaiah shifted the pack over his shoulder and pointed a finger at Jude's chest. “I'm holding you responsible if anything happens to Bridget or Clover.”

“Bridget and Clover are responsible for themselves,” Clover said. Isaiah exhaled sharply and walked away.

Clover slipped her hand into Jude's. She knew that Jude didn't need Isaiah to hold him responsible. If anything happened to any of them, he'd never forgive himself.

I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies all right. But my damn friends, my god-damned friends . . . they're the ones who keep me walking the floor nights!

—WARREN G. HARDING,
TO WILLIAM ALAN WHITE, AS QUOTED IN
A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

West stood on the bank of the river and watched the
water rush into the city, under the bridge formed by the wall. Several sharp rocks jutted up and caused the water to break around them.

Was that good? Shallow water maybe meant less chance of anyone drowning. Was it bad? Shallow water maybe meant more chance of someone being beaten against the rocks that would be submerged by a few feet in the spring when the snow melted.

West was surprised to find that, even standing just a few feet from the city limits, he had no desire to be on the other side of the wall. Clover, Bridget, and Jude were coming back out today—for good this time—and that felt right.

Christopher, Marta, Phire, and even little Emmy had worked hard with him to turn Waverly's ranch into
their
ranch. They'd harvested the gardens, saved seeds, managed the flock of chickens and the small stock of dairy goats. They were prepared for winter, and West was glad that they'd be a complete unit again.

Christopher and Marta stood between Waverly's van and a station wagon they'd found in a driveway in Incline Village. They'd left the engines running to keep the heaters going and to allow them a faster getaway if they needed it. West stuck a hand in the water and it felt like exactly what it was: close to freezing.

“Where are they?” Phire asked. “Isn't it time yet?”

The sun was low on the horizon, and West thought it must be near the time for people to start coming through the water to their side of the wall. He hated not knowing what was happening over there. Clover could be getting arrested, right then. Bridget had been acting strange the last couple of weeks. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, he was afraid that if there was any trouble it had to do with her. Was she balking at leaving the city? Had she told her father?

He didn't know Leanne, but he had at least a basic trust in her. What choice did he have? She'd warned them about Bennett's plan, so maybe she really was one of them. No way was Clover going back onto the
Veronica
. All Bennett would have to do to get rid of her was to leave her too long in the future. She'd come back lost to him forever.

Christopher came down the bank with a length of rope over each shoulder and pulled West out of his thoughts. He handed one of the ropes over. “You ready to do this?”

“I'm ready,” West said as he slipped his arm through the coil. They had just about every towel and blanket from the ranch with them. Marta and Phire stood by with a stack of each, ready to warm the others as they came through. Emmy sat on top of the van, on the lookout, just in case.

“Is that them?” Marta asked.

West ducked his head, trying to see what she saw. It was dark under the wall, but then he caught sight of an arm and a flash of a white T-shirt. “Yes!”

He went down as close to the water as he could get. He was prepared to jump into the river, if he had to, but needed to stay dry and relatively warm for as long as possible.

He thought at first that the brown arm belonged to Jude, but it was Isaiah's face that came out into the waning sunlight. For the space of two or three heartbeats, they just stared at each other, before Isaiah came all the way into view, towing a blond girl by one hand.

West thought,
Bridget,
and in the same instant he knew it wasn't her. This girl was younger, no more than thirteen or fourteen. Another girl, a strawberry blonde maybe Clover's age, had her other hand. Christopher tossed the end of his rope to Isaiah, who gave it to the first girl. Christopher yanked her out, dripping and shaking with cold. West got the other girl out of the water, then reached to help Isaiah, but his friend turned and let the current take him back to the bridge.

Marta wrapped the girls in blankets and elbowed Phire until he came to life and reached into the van for dry clothes.

“Here come more,” Christopher said as two boys came through. They were too thin and younger than the girls. The bigger one missed the rope when West tossed it, and for a second, West was sure he would have to go fish them out. The kid caught it on the second throw.

“There's more,” one of the girls said from the van. “Lots more.”

“Lots?” West asked, just as Isaiah came through again, holding a four- or five-year-old girl in his arms. Two more kids, a boy and a girl maybe a little older than Emmy, clutched at him as he led them out of the City.

“Where's Clover?” West called out to Isaiah, keeping his voice as low as he could manage.

“You guys got to move faster,” Christopher said before Isaiah could answer.

“We're doing the best we can.” Isaiah was shaking and his lips were blue. “You could help.”

West went down to the water's edge and knelt, peering under the bridge. The whole operation was unnaturally quiet. If guards heard them—West couldn't even think about what would happen. He waded into the water, the cold taking his breath away and the current tugging at his legs like the river wanted him back in the city. He waved to Christopher to come closer so they could build a human bridge to help the kids make their way.

The next group was a teenaged girl holding a little boy by the hand and a toddler holding on around her neck for dear life. The older boy tripped and the girl went down on one knee. The baby panicked when his lower body went into the icy water and he yanked the girl's hair until her mouth opened in a silent scream. Not that being quiet mattered when the baby was wailing.

West was waist deep in the cold water before he could think about it. He took the kid from the girl's back, despite both of their protests.

“Give him back to me!” The girl gripped West's arm, which gave him some leverage to get her back on her feet. “Please!”

West pushed the older boy ahead of him toward Christopher and hoped that the girl would follow them. She did. West handed the baby up to Marta. Phire helped the older boy out. West kept a grip on the girl's arm and asked her, “What's your name?”

Her teeth were chattering and she looked miserably up the bank to the boys who were already being warmed. “Bethany.”

“Those are your brothers?”

“Please, let me go to them.”

West let her go. He could barely feel his lower body. By the time she reached the top of the incline and the warm cars, there was another flurry of activity at the bridge. Kids came through in groups of two or three, terrified and frozen. When the fifteenth and sixteenth were out of the water, West grabbed one of them and asked, “Where's my sister?”

“Cl-Clover's coming.”

“Where's Isaiah?” The kid just gave him a blank look though, so he let him go.

Jude and Clover came through together. West read his sister's panic like a book—her green eyes were wide and she was focused on some internal middle distance, not looking at Jude or West or anyone else. Her body was so stiff and tight that she was making it harder for Jude to help her. Jude had Mango's lead in his other hand and was trying to drag the dog through the cold water as well.

Jude let go of the dog and Mango managed his own way up the incline. West tried to help Clover once she was on his side of the bridge, but she jerked away from him.

“Help Leanne,” she said, pushing the words through clenched teeth.

Now that he wasn't fighting the dog as well, Jude was managing. Christopher was nearby, so West turned back to the bridge just in time to hear a woman scream from underneath it urgently enough that if there was a guard within earshot, it would bring him running.

“Are you crazy?” he hissed as loud as he dared. “Shut up.”

The scream bit off, like the woman might have put her hands over her mouth to stop it. Jude came back to West and then went past him without stopping. West followed. The current was like a freight train.

“Where's Bridget?” he asked the other boy. “Jude, where's Bridget?”

West took three steps, meaning to get close enough to look and see what was going on. His fourth step landed on something smooth and slimy and his foot slipped out from under him, sending him backward, arms flailing.

The Truckee River took him nearly back into the city he'd worked so hard to get out of in the first place. He inhaled bitterly cold water into his nose and mouth, and then all the air went out of him at once when he smacked first his hip and then his forehead into a boulder that at least stopped him from riding the river all the way to the execution squads.

“West!” He heard Clover yelling for him, and then Christopher frantically hushing her. It was obvious that somehow Bennett had never found out how they were getting the kids out of the city, because they were doing an awful job of being quiet. If Bennett had somehow managed a time loop that would let him know ahead of time, he'd be here with the whole guard.

West looked up, shaking his head to clear it, and saw Jude supporting a woman who held a leg up in the air, out of the water, over her head. This was Leanne, then. Clover had told him about her prosthetic leg. Near panic and with her hair in braids, she looked much younger than she must have been. West levered himself up and back on his feet.

Jude took the woman's metal leg, keeping it out of the water, while West wrapped an arm around her waist to support her as they all fought their way against the current. Christopher splashed into the shallow part of the river to help lift Leanne out.

West started back toward the bridge. “Where are Bridget and Isaiah?”

Jude took his arm and stopped him. “They aren't coming.”

“What are you talking about?” West shivered hard enough to make talking difficult. He bent and peered under the bridge. “They have to come.”

“They left.”

He turned back to Jude. “They left? How could you let them go?”

“How could I stop them?”

West was cold and confused and didn't like that combination at all. He peeled off his wet T-shirt and handed it to Marta, who gave him a dry sweatshirt. “This is way more than a dozen people. Way more, Jude.”

Jude looked at the two vehicles, both packed with scared, half-frozen kids. “Who should we have left behind?”

West kicked off his shoes and struggled out of his soaked pants. He did his best to maintain some kind of modesty, but he was so cold that he didn't really care who saw what in his effort to warm up. Jude handed him a dry pair of blue jeans.

He put them on, and once he was dry and dressed, he felt a little more in control of himself. “Let's just get home.”

“West!” Clover, still tugging on a navy blue coat, ran toward him with Mango on her heels. She hesitated for a second, like she was preparing herself for impact, and then wrapped her arms around his neck. He put a hand on the back of her wet head, holding her against him.

“God, I missed you,” he said.

He felt her stiffen seconds before she pulled away. She took two steps back and looked up at him. “I missed you, too.”

A dictatorship would be a lot easier.

—GEORGE W. BUSH,
GOVERNING
MAGAZINE,
JULY 1998

“So, sixteen kids and your trainer,” West said. He
finally had some feeling back in his extremities. In the station wagon's rearview mirror, he could see half of those kids crowded together like sardines. “Not exactly a dozen, Clover.”

Clover was in the front seat with her feet tucked under her, wedged into the space between the driver's and passenger's seats. Jude and Mango were both up front as well. “I didn't know Leanne was coming. She said she wasn't.”

Leanne was in the van. “Did she say why she changed her mind?”

“She just went into the water,” Jude said. “I don't know what happened. The real miracle is that Bennett didn't show up with the entire guard.”

West held his right fingers against the heater vent. Maybe the advance warning system didn't work as well as Bennett wanted them to think it did. That thought was strangely electric. “What do we do with her?”

“She knows more about the Company than any of us,” Clover said. “We need her.”

Maybe they did need her. They had no real plan, so how could he know? They drove in silence for a while. The restlessness from the back seats quieted down as well, and when West looked he saw that most of the kids had fallen asleep.

Clover had dozed off, too, with her head resting on Jude's shoulder and his arm firmly around her. West looked back at the road. Right now was not the time to think about that. He needed to figure out why Bridget had left. Every time he thought about it, he felt a little sick. She hadn't come. He had no way of contacting her. Maybe not ever again. She'd left with Isaiah.

“There's something going on between Bridget and Isaiah,” Jude said, softly.

West turned to look at him, startled to hear his thoughts given voice. “Don't be stupid.”

“I'm sorry. I—”

“Stop talking.”

Jude petted Mango on the head and adjusted his arm when Clover whimpered in her sleep and turned closer to him. His sister never let anyone touch her, but she was curled against this boy like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Maybe she didn't want to leave her father. Maybe she just wanted to stay in the city,” West said.

“It was that, too, I think.” Jude hesitated before speaking again. “West, she told Isaiah just about everything.”

That was enough to jolt him out of feeling sorry for himself. “She wouldn't have done that.”

“She did,” Clover said, her voice thick with exhaustion. She sat up, putting space between herself and Jude.

West stayed quiet the last ten minutes before pulling into the ranch. Bridget and Isaiah? He could picture both of their faces perfectly but couldn't put them together. No. He couldn't even think about it now. He had sixteen kids, Leanne, Clover, and Jude to find beds for. In separate houses for those last two. On different sides of the ranch.

He'd think about Bridget later.

—

“It's still warm enough to sleep in the houses without
heat, if we bundle up,” West said as the drained, semi-traumatized kids were led to the four small houses Waverly had set up for the Freaks. “We'd planned on moving into the main house soon, but that isn't going to work now.”

“Nothing in the notebooks about heating the houses?” Jude asked.

“Nothing. We'll figure it out. It's warm enough tonight for just blankets. There's some food in each house. It should be enough, even with the extra people.”

All West wanted was to sort all of these people into beds and pallets and close the door on his own bedroom. He needed to think and he couldn't do that when he was surrounded by scared, hungry children.

Originally there was a house for Phire and Emmy, one for Marta and Geena, one for Christopher and Jude, and one for West and Clover. Now Christopher and Marta shared a house, with Jude in the city and Geena killed by Bennett the night Waverly died. Phire and Emmy were still housed together and for the last couple of months West had his house to himself. The fourth house was empty.

“How many do we have total?” West asked Christopher.

“The five of us, plus Jude and Clover, the lady with the leg, and sixteen kids from Foster City.” Christopher tilted his head, figuring it out, then said, “Twenty-four.”

“Twenty-four.”

“It's okay,” Marta said. When West met her, her head was nearly shaved bald. She'd let her hair grow since leaving the city. It lay like a cap against her head, soft and light brown. “We'll be okay.”

“I know that.” God, he was on edge. He needed to get this done so he could fall apart quietly and in private. “So, let's get six in the main house, then five in each of the houses except mine. I'll take Leanne and Clover and we can use the extra space so we have a place to meet.”

Christopher nodded and started to walk away, but West caught his arm.

“Keep siblings together. And save a spot for Jude in your house, okay?”

Marta shook her head and, to her credit, tried to hide her laughter. Christopher put a hand on her shoulder when she said to West, “You know that won't keep them apart.”

“It will tonight.”

—

After West finally had the new arrivals fed and
settled in their houses for the night, he went home. He opened the door softly, not wanting to wake Clover and Leanne if they were already asleep.

They weren't. Or Leanne wasn't. She sat on the sofa, alone, staring at nothing in particular. Somewhere along the line, she'd reattached her leg.

“Is Clover asleep?” he asked.

Leanne stayed where she was and didn't look up. “I don't know.”

West left her there. He had no idea what to do for her. He needed to process, alone, and then sleep. Upstairs, he opened his sister's bedroom door.

Christopher hadn't done what he said he would. Jude and Clover sat side by side, leaning against the headboard of one of the beds with Mango snoring softly on the dog bed Waverly had found for him somewhere.

“You're not asleep,” he said.

Clover gave him a strange look and shook her head. “No, I'm not.”

“You look tired,” Jude said. “Do you want to talk tonight, or—”

“There's a bed for you in Christopher and Marta's house. It's the one you used to sleep in.”

“It's not our fault that she didn't come,” Clover said. “We didn't even know that they left until it was too late.”

He took a breath and tried to find some tact, somewhere in his messed-up head, but couldn't. “Jude, you aren't sleeping in this room.”

West instantly regretted his words. Clover stiffened and fixed him with a look so angry, he actually took a half step back. Jude didn't move; his expression didn't even change. Mango woke up and lifted his head.

“At least take the couch. Give Leanne the other bed.” West left the room. He didn't close the door after him. He almost made it to his bedroom. So close.

“Clover? Clover!”

Clover and Jude both came to the doorway. Mango must have decided his girl could manage, because he wasn't with them. Leanne called again from downstairs. “Clover!”

They found Leanne pacing from the door to the staircase and back. When West left her, she'd seemed nearly catatonic, but now she was hyper-animated.

“I have to go back,” she said. “Tonight. Right now. I have to get back to the city right now.”

“You can't,” Clover said.

“I have to.”

“There isn't anyone to help you on the other side,” West said.

“I'll manage.”

“Wait a minute.” Jude took Leanne by the arm and moved her to the couch. After she was sitting, he asked, “Why do you need to go back to the city?”

“I made a mistake. I got scared. But if I'm not at work in the morning—” She turned in her seat to look at West and Clover. “Bridget Kingston knows where you are.”

“Bridget wouldn't tell anyone,” West said.

Clover sat on the other end of the couch. “She told Isaiah.”

West wanted to defend Bridget. The words came up his throat, then died there. She had told Isaiah. “Shit.”

“I have to go back. Bennett will come to me looking for Clover tomorrow. That will give you at least a little time before he goes to Bridget.”

“Time?” Clover asked.

“Time for us to move.” West was so tired. So incredibly tired. “We have to leave the ranch.”

“You have to stay, Leanne,” Clover said. “Who knows what Bennett will do to you when he finds out I'm gone. He'll know that you warned me. Please, don't go.”

Jude sat next to Clover. He didn't try to stop her rocking. “She's right,” he finally said.

Clover pulled her bare feet up to the edge of the sofa and wrapped her arms around her knees.

“We'll be okay,” West said. “I promise, we'll be fine. Virginia City is bigger, it has so much more room.”

“Virginia City?” Clover asked.

“It's in Waverly's notes,” West said. “He set it up as an alternative place for us. I think he knew we'd need it.”

“That's just great,” she said. “Well, Leanne can't go back to Reno. Not now. You need her here.”

West inhaled and tried to figure out what his sister was talking about. He felt like there was something he should be able to see, but it was right outside the edge of his vision. “What are you talking about?”

She sighed and leaned back against the sofa. “Everyone always tells their big news before me. Remember, Bridget did the same thing when I had to tell you I was going back to the city.”

“We're not going back to Reno,” Jude said quickly, intercepting West's protest.

Clover held a hand up, cutting them both off. “I have to go to Washington, D.C.”

She might as well have told him that she had to go to the moon. He couldn't even wrap his head around how he was going to move all these people a few dozen miles to Virginia City.

“We need that book,” she said.

“Clover, I can't do this right now. I don't even know what you're talking about.”

“The book,” she said, frustration permeating her voice. “Waverly's book. It's in the Library of Congress, I'm sure of it, and we need to get it.”

West scrubbed his hands through his hair. “Has everyone lost it? Really? Because I can't even believe we're having this conversation.”

Clover narrowed her eyes. “I have to go, West.”

“No. I'm sorry. No. Whatever is in that book, we don't need it right now.”

“I can't dive for Waverly's notes.”

“We have bigger problems!” West inhaled and tried to slow his heart.

“You aren't listening to me. I can't swim. I can't learn to swim. I can't do it. We can't get the notes, so we have to find the book. We have to know what Waverly put in it.”

“You aren't going to Washington, D.C. How would you even get there? It's three thousand miles away.”

“I know how far away it is. I'm not stupid.”

“I know you're not stupid.” West turned to Jude and then Leanne, silently begging for some help. Neither of them jumped in. “This is ridiculous.”

“She can take the train,” Leanne said.

“Christ, don't give her ideas.”

Clover bristled. “I can come up with my own ideas. I would have thought of that one.”

“You can't take the train. Even if it was safe, our train doesn't even go that far.”

Leanne put a hand over her mouth. She looked as stressed as he felt. “She can get as far as Denver with Frank. He'll know what to do from there.”

West pointed a finger at her, then fisted his hand and bounced it off his hip. “If you think I'm sending my sister on a train alone across the country, you're crazy. Seriously, insane.”

“She wouldn't be alone,” Jude said.

West turned to Jude but couldn't stand to look at him. He couldn't stand to look at any of them, so he paced away.

Clover stood up. “What are we doing here? Just hiding forever? We need to know what Waverly felt was important enough to hide. We need that book.”

“So send a message with Frank. Get someone to get the book and send it back to us.”

Clover walked around to stand in front of West. Mango was finally roused by their voices enough to come downstairs and stand beside her. “That will take too long. And if the book gets lost—we can't trust it to strangers. You know I'm right.”

“The farther away from Bennett she is, the better,” Leanne said, quietly.

Clover stared up at him, making more eye contact than she normally did in a week. He blinked first. “I'll take Leanne back.”

“West—”

He shut her down with a look. “I'll take her now.”

—

“I can reach Bridget,” Leanne said after five minutes
of silence in the van. “I can get her a message.”