Rebellion (4 page)

I'm not so sure, but considering it's been stable for years and Mother is anything but, I decide to focus my energy on Mother.

Nadia continues as if I didn't interrupt her. “There are also places with underground waterways. That ‘noise' is from a waterway we uncovered in the trench wall.”

“So … there's water
under
the water?” Jesus, it only gets worse with everything I hear. Maybe I should just stop asking.

“Yes.” She smiles. “I'll explain more later, but please, we must hurry. We don't have much time.”

She continues straight to the unfinished buildings. It's so strange. I was right about there not being windows and ceilings, but in this particular building a lot of the walls themselves aren't there either. Most of them are just skeletal innards, studs and crossbeams. We pass through doorless doorways and walk down wall-less hallways.

Then, in the center of the building, is a room that's actually a room. With thick, heavy doors. Walls covered with strange drawings and a projection screen on the far side. In the middle is an old saggy table that takes up most of the space in the room. Papers of every size and color cover the top. Dilapidated rolling chairs circle it. Surprisingly, the room is completely quiet. It reminds me of the Detainment Center. My ears ring from the sudden silence.

“Sit.” Nadia gestures for us to take one of the chairs and I do so very gingerly. I'm not sure the chair is strong enough to support my weight.

She waits until Evie takes her seat, then says, “I must ask a favor of you, Evelyn Winters, former Daughter of the People. I know you have questions.” She twitches her gaze toward me. “Both of you. I promise I'll explain everything, but we don't have much time.” She focuses on Evie again. “There's a doctor whose work is important to us. Dr. Moreau. He worked with Dr. Friar on the ‘special projects' that turned out to be the disaster in Sector Three.” It takes me a minute to figure out Nadia is talking about the monsters that tried to kill us in the abandoned sector back when we first escaped Elysium. “Since the experiments failed, leaving Mother with almost no Guards and a dwindling number of Enforcers, Mother's decided to fire him.”

“Okay, so what do you need us for?” I ask.

Nadia gives me an apologetic look. “Not you.” She gestures to Evie. “Miss Evelyn.”

“But she can't do anything! She's still hurt.”

“Her nanites are effectively healing her. She is well enough to perform this mission.”

“What mission?” I demand, flabbergasted. Why would they need Evie to help a doctor who's going to be fired?

“Mother doesn't
fire
people. She kills them,” Evie says from next to me. Her voice is quiet, almost emotionless, but there's some tiny hint of something I can't quite place when she says, “They want me to stop it and bring him here.”

 

C
HAPTER
T
HREE

Mother's word is law. Everyone must follow the law. If you do not, then you are a traitor and will be treated as such.

—
C
ITIZEN'S
S
OCIAL
C
ODE,
V
OLUME
III

Evie

I don't know what I'm doing. Two hours ago I was determined not to leave the Caverns. Not until I was sure Asher was fine—I'm the only family he has, and I put him there, after all. But then Father and Nadia told us about what was supposed to happen to the doctor and I couldn't just let that happen. Not if there was something I could do to stop it—and a former Enforcer is better than no one. So now I find myself waiting in a dark room in the Medical Sector.

I have my memories. And my emotions. Two things Enforcers don't have. Mistakes happen when emotions get in the way. And emotions get in the way when your mind reminds you why you should feel them. That's why Mother made sure Enforcers didn't have them. I don't know how anyone expects me to actually pull this off, but I can't let another person die if I can do something to stop it.

So I wait crouched in the darkest corner of the doctor's office, behind a large potted plant. I'm not even entirely sure how I got here. I just know Nadia dragged me through a bunch of tunnels. By the time we got out of them, I was completely confused. I have no idea how I'm going to get back, since she wouldn't come into the lights of Sector Two.

My left leg is starting to cramp and I'm fairly certain my right one has fallen asleep. I adjust my position and bite down on my lip to stop from crying out when my leg suddenly bursts into flames as sensation pours back in.

I've been here an hour. The assassination was supposed to happen thirty minutes ago. Either it was a hoax or someone forgot to check their clocks.

Restless and not sure how long I should wait before I consider it a bust, I decide to do a little snooping on my own. If this was the doctor that helped Dr. Friar and Mother with trying to turn the Guards into Enforcers, maybe there's some evidence—paperwork or something—to use against her.

I root through the drawers of the metal desk, but there's nothing of importance as far as I can tell. So I move on to the file cabinet. Again, nothing important in the first two drawers. But in the third, there's a little box hidden all the way in the back, just under the files. A person glancing through for a file even with all the lights on wouldn't have seen it. I
just
barely catch a glimpse of it as I move papers around.

The box is locked, so I shove it in my bag to force open back in the Caverns. Just as I slide the drawer shut again, a door whispers open at the other end of the hallway. Lights flicker to life and footsteps draw closer to me, echoing off the walls and scattering their sound around the empty hall. Only from the heavy thudding sound they make can I tell it's probably a man. I dive back into my hiding spot behind the plant.

The footsteps stop outside the door, and I'm blinded when the lights blare to life. The footsteps become muffled as he crosses the carpeted floor toward the filing cabinet. I blink a few times to get my eyes to adjust to the light as I peek over one of the plant's long leaves. I don't recognize the man, but then again, I probably wouldn't. Mother only entrusted me to the care of Dr. Friar.

This man is considerably younger. Closer to my age than either Dr. Friar
or
Mother. He's not all that tall, probably just a few inches taller than myself, and he's extremely lanky in a way that suggests he's probably quite clumsy. Or extremely graceful. There's no in-between on this one.

He pulls open the bottom drawer and yanks the files toward him. He stops, frowns, and yanks each file toward the back of the cabinet, before reversing it again. He slams the drawer shut before I hear him curse. Now I'm glad I grabbed the box. It's obvious it's what he's looking for. And if he's looking for it, it's definitely worth something. He stands and frantically pats at the pockets of his pants and lab coat, muttering to himself, his back still to the door.

That's when a sound from the hallway catches my attention.

The Enforcer!

It has to be her. I adjust my position and posture so I can take her out the minute I can confirm it's her. I have just a moment to think about warning the scientist she's coming, but she's there before it's more than an entire thought. With no more than a rustle of her clothes, she slips into the room. I have to admire her for that at least. She's as graceful as the gazelles on the Surface I've read about. She's probably one of Mother's greatest achievements.

It's the same Enforcer from earlier, which worries me. I've already dealt with her once and failed. I'm not sure I can actually win against her. Then again, this time neither Asher nor Gavin are here. My only concern is the doctor and the box in my bag. And
I
have the element of surprise.

I plan on taking full advantage of it.

The minute she's fully in the room, I move like lightning and pounce on her before she can even turn in my direction. She slams into the wall. She didn't even have a chance to react. But I don't take the time to gloat. I have to stop her. My body works on instinct and I pull my fist back and punch her in the chin, slamming her head back into the wall.

“What in the name of Mother?” Dr. Moreau pushes himself against the wall as if trying to crawl through it.

While I'm distracted by the doctor, the Enforcer is able to get her legs between us. She kicks hard against my chest, sending me flying across the room. I'm able to soften my landing, but I still come back with rug burns on my palms and legs.

In the time it takes me to get up, she's pulled something silver from her cape. The doctor's eyes widen when he sees it and his entire face pales, making his eyes seem even larger and darker. I've never seen anything like it before, but it reminds me of some kind of remote control. Her thumb presses one of the buttons and almost instantly the doctor's blood curdling screams threaten to break my eardrums.

I cross the distance between us in a leap and try to sweep her legs out from underneath her, but she jumps neatly out of the way and brings her arm down on the back of my neck, which causes my entire spine to protest. My body goes limp long enough for me to hit the ground face-first. It knocks the breath out of me, but I sweep my leg out again the minute I hit. I'm not going to let her get the best of me. This time I'm able to catch her by surprise and she falls backward. She drops the silver remote, but either doesn't care or doesn't notice.

With a growl, she pounces on me and punches me repeatedly in the stomach, right where she shot me earlier. While completely healed, it's still tender to the touch, and after the fall I just took, this new assault makes my eyes water. I shove her away, and reach toward the silver device. I'm sure it's what's causing the doctor's screams. A thought flutters through my brain that this must have been what sent my nanites into chaos before without the normal injection first.

My fingertips barely touch the cold metal before she jumps on my back and yanks my hair. My vision wavers. I jam my elbow backward as hard as I can, managing to connect with something that makes her howl. I'm pretty sure I hear a crack.

She jumps off me, and I whirl onto my back and shove to my feet. But she's nowhere in the room. I run into the hall just as she pushes through a door at the end of the hallway. She stops a moment. Her eyes meet mine. Then she's gone and the door slams behind her.

When I turn to get back to the doctor, something crinkles under my foot. I glance down. I've stepped on a sheet of plastic. It's absolutely clear, but is a similar shape and size to a sheet of paper. It's curled in on itself right now, but I know exactly what it is. When it's flat, it'll operate like a Slate—the clear glass hand held computer every Citizen is issued after they come of age. But this one is different. It's just for Enforcers. That means it has only one function: to give the Enforcers their orders.

It's Mother's way to ensure orders can be given to any Enforcer, at any time, without delay or confusion. No matter where they are in the facility. As soon as the Enforcer reads them, Mother and the Lead Enforcer get a notification on their Slates. When the order is finished, the Enforcer checks it off and again Mother and the Lead Enforcer are notified it's done.

There's also a fail-safe. It reads DNA. Should a regular Citizen pick it up, the entire sheet erases itself. No need to worry the Citizens with messages of death and murder.

Not holding out much hope that I'll actually be able to read it, I pick it up and unroll it. The e-ink flashes to life and I'm surprised to see this Enforcer's orders are still on it. Complete with date and time the order was sent. Date and time it was expected to be carried out. And exactly what was to be done.

I shudder as I read through it. This assassination was not going to be pretty. And the device is the reason for it. It's something called a nanite telemanipulator—in other words, a remote control for nanobots.

I wonder briefly why I was able to read the orders. Considering I haven't been an Enforcer for a long time, not to mention I'm public enemy number one. I should've been erased from the mainframe. But I'll worry about that later. I don't have time now, especially with the doctor still screaming. I slip the sheet into one of my many pockets.

The silver device is still on the floor where I left it, so I rush to it and press a button, then run over to the doctor. He's holding his arm and howling as though it's been ripped off. I can't say I blame him. Whatever this thing does, it's horrible.

I help him sit up. “It's all right. I've got you.” The scent of blood assaults my nose almost instantly and a warm, sticky fluid pours over my fingers.

A quick glance shows my hand covered in blood. The floor around us is rapidly turning redder.

“What in the…” I break off when I see what's caused all the blood.

I'm not holding his arm. I'm holding the stump of what's left.

 

C
HAPTER
F
OUR

I'm tired of hiding. I've hidden behind a mask that Mother made for me my entire life. First as an Enforcer, then as Daughter of the People. I refuse to hide any longer.

—
E
VIE'S JOURNAL

Evie

I stumble my way back into the Caverns, following behind Nadia—who'd met me in the Maintenance tunnels—with the unconscious doctor slung across my shoulders. By the time I lug Dr. Moreau all the way to the room Asher had been in—the Caverns' medical area, apparently—my legs feel like rubber.

Even though I'd tied a makeshift tourniquet around the stump of his arm, he'd still lost a lot of blood between now and then. I place him on the cot Asher had been occupying—I hope that Asher's absence means he's recovered enough to be moved elsewhere and push any other thoughts from my head.