Rebellion (18 page)

Asher's father studies the two of us closely, until he finally nods at me. “Show me this raft,” he demands.

I don't want to. My gut tells me it's not a good idea. But if I don't show him, he'll know I'm lying.

“Follow me.” I stand up, and without waiting for him or anyone else, I head straight toward the shoreline and the buried raft. We pass through the gate, where the two guards stand up straight as the mayor proceeds through.

“Both of you!” he barks. “Come!”

They don't even hesitate; they fall in line behind us. The heat of their stare burns the back of my neck, but I keep my gaze straight ahead and focus on where I'm walking. My nerves are strung as tight as a fully drawn bowstring, but I can't let the mayor see.

Finally, I gesture to the ground. “I buried it around here somewhere.”

The mayor signals his guards to start digging and it doesn't take them long to unearth the remains of the raft. It falls apart in their hands. I'm not surprised. I'm amazed it didn't fall apart on my way back here.

The mayor glances at it, then at the water, the island, and finally me, before turning to his guards. “You may go.”

They don't hesitate. They run back toward their post before he even finishes the sentence. He doesn't seem to notice. He's just
staring
at me. “You really expect me to believe that you used
that
to get across from the island?”

I fight the urge to swallow the lump of nerves stuck in my throat. I'm sure he has the eyes of a vulture hawk and any show of fear or nerves will give me away.

“Like I said before, I don't really care what you believe. I can only tell you what I know.”

He tries staring me down, but years of hunting predators meaner and bigger than me has taught me how to hide my tells, and the one thing I have in spades is patience. I can wait out anything, or anyone, as long as it takes. That doesn't mean I'm not terrified he can sense my fear like a dog sniffs out fresh meat.

Finally, he jerks his head to the side, then pushes past me to trudge back to his office. He doesn't say a single word until we get back. Caroline and Lenore are sitting talking, but whatever it is they're saying is quickly cut off when we walk in. Asher's grandmother stares at me and I don't have to hear her to know her question. Did he see what he needed?

I nod slightly before turning my attention back to the mayor.

“It seems my business with you and your family is concluded.” Anger permeates every syllable he utters.

I realize, too late, I shouldn't have said anything until the papers were signed. Not that that would have really changed anything. He could just tear them up. But hopefully Caroline would have made sure to file them in such a way that it would have been too much of a hassle. And with so many witnesses, Lenore, who doesn't take shit from anyone, being one of them, would he have dared?

Caroline hands him some papers. “The letter you requested. In triplicate.” He rips it from her hands and for a moment, I'm paralyzed with fear he won't sign it. Then he takes a pen from his drawer, scrawls his signature, and adds his seal to all three pages. He hands—well, more like tosses—two back to Caroline and one to me.

“I do not appreciate being made a fool of, Mr. Hunter.”

I straighten my shoulders to argue, but Asher's grandmother steps in between us before I can. “He did nothing of the sort.” She leans into him. I'm surprised to see him actually back away from her. “He told you before he had no information on Asher or Evelyn. Yet you insisted he did. You ostracized his entire family, destroyed their fresh water, then threatened more harm if he didn't give you what you wanted. So he gave you the best answer he could. The only one who made a fool of you is yourself. I suggest, before putting your foot any further into that large yapping hole you call a mouth, that you apologize and do as you promised.” She waves one of the pages in the air in front of the mayor's nose.

She reminds me of Evie so much in that moment that I have to swallow the sudden lump that forms in my throat and look away. It's no wonder the two of them, not to mention Asher and Evie, got along so well almost from the minute they met. And the resemblance reminds me there's the possibility that there might actually be a familial connection between them.

The mayor narrows his eyes, but snaps, “I will remove the guards and your family will have their rights returned immediately. As for your water, I'll try to have a crew out there within the hour to fix your pump and replace the pump house.” He dismisses all of us with a wave of his hand.

Honestly, I don't believe for a minute that he'll do any of what he says, but as long as he leaves my family alone, I don't really care. Despite what Caroline said yesterday, I'm sure she'll make sure he does.

As we exit, I try not to look at Asher's grandmother. Even when I hold the door open for her. I'm at a loss as to why she's here. She doesn't fit in our dusty, dirty, falling down village. She fits in perfectly with the beautiful and stylish Rushlake City where she lives. But since it saves me a trip and much needed time, I'm not going to question it too much.

I pause to talk to her when we get into the reception area, but she stops me with a look. “I am parched,” she says loudly, startling me. “That was a long ride for such an old lady.” She gives me a look full of meaning, before glancing at her daughter, Asher's mom. “Caro, would you accompany me to the bar? I think I could use a drink.”

I raise my eyebrows. A drink? This early?

“Not right now, Mom, but we'll do something special for your return this evening after I finish working. Maybe Gavin can escort you. You can teach him all the ways of being a true gentleman.”

“That's a grand idea!” She turns to me. “Would you care to escort a lady for a drink?”

I'd have to be an idiot to
not
see what's really going on, so I hold my arm out. “Of course.”

She slides her arm through mine and I escort her to the bar, where she leads me to a table right in the middle of the room. She orders a tea for herself and water for me.

I'm not sure why she picked a bar, or why she's being nice to me, but it makes no difference, so I ask, “What are you doing here? How did you know I was here?”

She lifts a brow. “Come now. Surely you can come up with better questions than those.”

I stare at her.

She shakes her head. “My daughter and I do talk from time to time, you know. Especially when something as important as your arrival happens.”

“What's so important about my arrival? And why did you help me?”

She smiles and leans back in her chair. “Now that, my boy, is a much better question.” She taps her foot against the floor in time to the music pouring from some kind of pre-war radio. “Because you've been
there
and made it back
here.
Alive and well and with all your limbs attached.” Her eyes run over my bruised face. “Even if you are a bit banged up.”

“That's from the mayor.” Not sure why, but that's a huge point of pride for me. That it wasn't Elysium that hurt me, it was the Surface.

“I'm sure.” The server places our drinks in front of us, before leaving us without so much as a “you're welcome.” Asher's grandma takes a sip of the tea, then wrinkles her nose and pushes the cup to the side. “You found him. Didn't you?”

“Who?” I know exactly who she's talking about. Eli. I just don't care to answer. I want answers from her first.

“You know exactly who.” She leans forward. “Don't play games with me, boy. I've been playing them longer than you've been alive and I know all the rules.”

It doesn't take me long to realize that I'm going to have to play almost the same game with her that I did with Evie when I first got to Elysium. One answer of my own for each answer she gives me. I go first to show her she can trust me. “Yeah. We found him. He's not the same though.”

She leans back in her seat. “No doubt.” She says it softly, almost sadly. “Any amount of time that close to Mother has to have an impact.” She gives me an even look. “I helped you because what my son-in-law did to your mother was as wrong as wrong can get. I've had quite enough of that, thank you. If Caro would listen to reason…” She trails off, before refocusing on me. “I was already on my way here when Caroline told me you'd shown back up. That man merits a beating,” again she looks me up and down, “and I applaud your restraint in not giving him all that he deserves.”

“I still don't understand why we're sitting here having tea.”

“Because I know now that you think you've gotten things straightened out you're going to go back to her. I'm here to tell you not to.”

I twist my water glass in my hand. Now that Lenore is with me, I should be planning on going back, but the truth is I've been thinking the same thing. That maybe I should wait a bit longer. To make sure the mayor follows through with leaving my family alone.

But … “I'm not just going to leave her there.”

“That man is going to be watching you closer than a dog watches a bone. You've got to pretend everything is normal, because if he even
thinks
you've lied to him, he won't hesitate to make that contract null and void.”

“I'm surprised he hasn't already.”

“I knew you were smart.” She leans back in her seat and stirs her tea, but doesn't drink it. “Go on, for now, like you would if Evie really had left you.” She smiles at me. “Let my son-in-law pretend to make you a king among paupers, then, when his guard is down and he finally believes you,
then
you leave.”

“How long will that be?”

“I don't know. A couple of weeks. A couple of months. It just depends.”

“And when will I know?”

“I'll tell you.” She takes another sip of her tea, makes another face, and places it down again. “God, they really make horrible tea, don't they?” She signals for the server to come over. When he does, she says, “Bring me a whiskey.”

“We're not supposed to serve anything before noon.”

She glares at the boy. “I don't care what my jackoff of a son-in-law has decreed. I'm Lenore Allen of Rushlake City. I'm head of the board of trustees and I overrule my son-in-law here. I've ordered a whiskey, now bring it.” She bangs her cane on the floor and the boy jumps, basically tripping over his own feet. “Bring the whole bottle!” she yells after him.

I snicker as little bits and pieces of the puzzle I've been trying to assemble since she came back start falling into place. The server brings the bottle and Lenore downs two good mouthfuls before I speak.

“Why are you doing this? Really?” I ask. She has some sort of ulterior motive. They always do. “If you're head of the board of trustees and are basically in charge of the mayor, why aren't you turning in Evie yourself? How do I know that you're not the reason they left in the first place? You know exactly where she is and how to get there. You know everything. You sent them there yourself.”

“Because I made a mistake a long time ago, and it's high time I fixed it.” She takes another swallow of whiskey straight from the bottle. “I know much more about this whole debacle than you can ever imagine. I'm more involved in it than I ever wanted to be. And I need to fix it. The only thing I don't have is a way to get there.” She grins at me. “And you can give me that. Now you owe me a favor, and when it's time, I'll come to collect.”

There's never such a thing as a favor freely given with people from Rushlake. But I need her to come back with me, so
she's
really doing
me
another favor by coming.

However, there's no need to let
her
know that.

 

C
HAPTER
F
IFTEEN

It is my daughter that hides so boldly behind the mask, of this I have no doubt. And my foolish husband is probably the one that helps her. One must wonder though if she knows her political plays were taught to her by me.

—
M
OTHER'S JOURNAL

Evie

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that Mother's response to the masking was to
not
respond, but since nothing bad happened it's worth doing again. So the next day, I go out, just Asher and I, passing out flyers. This time it's just a note from Mother to her “most trusted scientist” that she needed to make her people better than what they were. Since it corroborates the notes from Dr. Friar that I passed out yesterday, I figure it's a good way to continue my propaganda circulation.

I've made over a hundred flyers this time and split them between Asher and me. Fifty apiece shouldn't be that hard to distribute quickly, especially if you drop the papers and disappear when the people next to you bend over to help you.

I've just dropped the last bit of flyers, when someone grabs my hand. Immediately, my whole body reacts as my brain shifts into that state between Evie the person and Evelyn the monster. But before I can even look up from the hand that clasped mine to the person it belongs to, the hand is gone and so are they. The only thing left behind is a small piece of paper.

“Evie!” Asher hisses so close to my ear I jump.

I glance up and see over his shoulder an Enforcer practically shoving people to get through them to me. I spin around and dash through the crowd to one of the shadowed sections, remove the mask, and yank my Enforcer garb back on to slip back into the crowd.

My heart thrashes in my chest as the Enforcer who was looking for me, steps next to me. “Did you see her?” Her voice is as emotionless and cold as I remember from my training, but I still have to fight not to shudder at it.