The Revealed (18 page)

I set down my fork. It clatters against the plate, echoing through the house.

Everything is eerily still, even though I’m never alone at the house. There are always maids and house attendants in and out. Security works around the clock, but it’s still unnerving, especially knowing The Revealed can slip past them. This house is too big for just a few people. We can’t make up for all the empty, dark space.

One hundred eighty-eight days.

I go to my room and get ready for bed, fumbling as I take off my earrings. I’m about to pull my shirt over my head to change into pajamas when I hear a shifting noise. The self-defense reflexes Elias taught me kick in, and I whirl around to fight. There’s a shadow on the opposite side of the room, and I’m still standing with my fists raised. The silhouette is leaning, staring out at the balcony. His back is turned on me, his hands buried in the pockets of his jeans.

I relax. At least, a little. A new tension sets in over my body.

I wait for him to turn, as I know he will.

He stares at me for a long moment, our eyes connecting.

“Sorry, I …,” he waves to the pajamas still on my bed in explanation for why he’d turned his back to me.

That’s all I get? Embarrassment at almost changing in front of him is the last thing on my mind. We have bigger issues.

Should I be angry? Do I have a right to be angry? Should I run into his arms? Should I run away? Call security? Dumbfounded, I just stand there like a dope, fiddling with the hem of my shirt.

There’s something different about him. Something has changed. I can see it in him. He doesn’t look at me the same way. The fire in his eyes is gone.

“Are you here to tell me you don’t want to see me anymore?” I keep my words stoic, strong. I keep the hurt out of my voice, but it lingers inside me.

He doesn’t answer.

“What do you want?” My blood spikes with frustration. He just stands there looking at me. I fill my lungs with air to calm my nerves and shut my eyes tightly. “Can you please just leave?”

His voice is low but clear. “I came here to explain.” There’s distance between us. Miles of it.

I ball my hands at my side. “Spare me. I get it, Kai. I saw the magazine cover.”

“It was a
tabloid
, Lily. You of all people should be smarter than that.”

“And the fact that you’ve been ignoring me until now? Is that somehow the tabloid’s fault too?”

His jaw tightens. “No.”

“That’s all I need to hear.”

I’m about to turn my back, but the way his eyes narrow makes me pause. His expression looks pained. He seems hurt. He continues staring at me through the darkness. He’s holding himself so stiff and strong, but I almost wonder if he’s really about to collapse. He’s always seemed so tough to me. Physically, he is. And mentally as well. But now, there’s something different.

“What happened to you?” My voice barely breaks the silence.

“I’m sorry, Lily,” he says, “I’m so sorry.”

Without even thinking, I move to him, wrapping my arms around him. It seems like the natural thing to do. He grips tightly, either pulling me closer or pushing me away. I can’t tell.

“I’m sorry,” he says again. He rests his head against mine. “You don’t know.”

“Kai, if something happened. You can tell—”

He presses his finger softly to my lips and pulls my chin back so I’m looking up into his gold-green gaze. Electricity runs through me all the way to my toes, and I hate that I respond to him this way. I hate that my heart is beating like crazy. His thumb traces across my mouth and he replaces his fingers with his lips. His touch is light, but I press against him. He laces his hands through my hair and pulls me closer. His mouth crushes against mine, and it’s suddenly so desperate. I wrap my hands around his shirt. His hands bunch into my hair. Our bodies are flush against one another, and his heat keeps away the chill in the room. But just as soon as I think that maybe everything is okay, he pulls away and untangles his hands from me. He walks to the window so we aren’t touching at all.

“What happened to you?” I ask again, trying desperately to make sense of this moment. “Did someone hurt you?”

“No.” His gaze brushes past me as though that one word is a sufficient explanation.

“I want to understand, Kai.” I want to be close with him like before. Those feelings are there. The need to be close to him is there, but it’s edged with confusion and pain.

His expression has darkened again. “You can’t. I need time.”

“Time?”

“Away.”

“Kai—”

He brushes me off and moves back toward the balcony, slipping off over the ledge and climbing to the ground before I have a chance to say anything else. I watch his shadow until it disappears into the darkness.

My tutor, Mr. Shieh, sits with me in the dining room.

I tap my pen and glance at Jeremy, who stands by the entryway. Ever since the car bombing attempt, he hasn’t left my side except to sleep. Now that my parents have left on their final leg of the campaign, I don’t even think he sleeps.

Mr. Shieh grabs my pen, halting the drumming rhythm I’d been beating against the table.

I mutter an apology and hunker down for the remainder of the lesson, watching as halfway through, Jeremy slips from the room. This is his usual pattern. My tutoring is the only chance he has for a break. I was counting on the fact that he’d follow this routine.

I close the book and Mr. Shieh sputters to a halt. “I’m sorry.” I tell him. “I’m suddenly not feeling well.”

Mr. Shieh gives me a knowing look, “You’ve already played that card this week, Ms. Atwood.”

Yeah, well, I need to make it work again.

“Right,” I tell him. “But this one is actually kind of an emergency.”

He eyes me warily.

“You know,” I scramble for an explanation and hit on the only one he can’t, or won’t, argue with, “girl things….”

Mr. Shieh just raises an eyebrow.

“Time of the month….” I make a face that I hope displays my awkward embarrassment.

Mr. Shieh’s eyes light up in the way I knew they would.

“Well then,” he closes his book as well. “I suppose it won’t do any harm to just pick up tomorrow.”

It won’t do any harm to never study again.
Since life as I know it is nearly up anyways thanks to The Revealed.

I do feel bad for sneaking around like this. Jeremy has been really good to me, but I can’t just stand by and study politics while my world crumbles around me.

As soon as Mr. Shieh closes the door behind him, I go for the keys to the car, then sprint off down the walkway toward the garage. I wave to a few of the guards on patrol, who greet me kindly and without suspicion. The patrols haven’t been as alert and prying lately since my mother has grown more lax on letting me leave the grounds.

I wish I could take the Aston. It isn’t like my father ever drives it. But I only have access to the keys for the SUV Jeremy drives, so that’s my only option. Jeremy’s car is equipped with an automatic gate key, and the patrols glance just long enough to recognize the license plate as I exit the property.

I open the sunroof to feel the breeze. It’s a crisp day outside—almost too chilly for me to have the sunroof open, but the wind makes me feel free.

I pull up to the Capitol Building parking lot and walk up to my father’s office without anyone questioning my presence. Most of them recognize me.

Tracy is sitting at her desk reading a tabloid on her computer. Kai, looking windblown and rugged on the street, is in full focus across the screen. I try not to focus on the picture—another one with the blonde. “Oh!” she jumps up when she sees me. “Lily! What are you doing here?”

“I think I forgot one of my school books inside when I saw my dad last week,” I say, acting desperate, “and I need to have it read before my class tomorrow. Do you mind if I go in and take a look? It would really help me out. You can call my dad if you need to.”

“Oh,” Tracy waves me off, “not a problem. It’s not like you’re a member of The Revealed or something,” she chuckles. “Go on in.”

“Thanks,” I sigh with mock gratefulness, “I’ll just be a minute.”

I walk inside the office and then peek back around the corner.

Tracy has gone back to her computer. As soon as I’m sure she isn’t going to come in after me, I turn to my father’s desk and begin rifling through his papers.

I want information on Kai, like where he was stationed for his mission. Something happened while he was gone. There is a reason he’s acting so strange. If he isn’t going to tell me, I’ll figure it out on my own. My father knew that Kai was back home before it was announced publicly, which means he looked into the case. He has to have the records somewhere.

I look under the random folders on his desk. I flip through the stacks of papers in the drawers. No luck. I place my hands on my hips and scan the room, glancing at the door. I’m running out of time. I poke my head around the corner again, just to make sure. Tracy is still sitting at her desk. But it won’t be long before she’ll get curious and come investigate.

My eyes scan the room again and rest on the computer at my father’s desk.

Of course! He probably didn’t have a hard-copy document delivered to him. Services like that are expensive and less efficient. He would have simply shot an email to the right department and received word back electronically.

The computer is off. It takes a moment to boot up. I settle into my father’s cushy desk chair. Immediately a prompt for the password pops up. A password I don’t have a hint about. But I’m his daughter, so I figure I may have a shot at guessing.

I try Mark Atwood.

It doesn’t work. Then I try my mother’s name, then mine. Each is incorrect. I try all sorts of combinations. All our first names. Just our last name. Capitalized. Not capitalized. Birthdays, my mother’s maiden name, phone numbers. Hopefully there isn’t an alert set up on this computer if someone tries to log in and fails too many times.

Finally, I try the last thing I can think of: president.

The computer takes me to the main page.

I should have known.

I open his email and find all the messages he received on the day Kai returned home. There isn’t anything related to the military in his file. I go back to the date when Kai left.

And there it is.

From a General Colin Solemn. It’s a form document, which I open.

“Lily?” Tracy calls from outside.

I jump, and my knee slams into my father’s desk.

“Sorry Tracy!” I call, “I can’t find it.” My eyes prick with tears and I rub my knee. Ouch.

“Well, it’s almost six, and I’m usually out of here by five thirty.”

The sun is already setting. I check the clock, 5:57 p.m.

“It’s no problem,” I call back, “I’ll just have to do without it.”

As I talk, I quickly scan over the form. The date when Kai left home. The date of his expected, now confirmed, return. And then the purpose of the mission.

There’s a shuffle outside as papers are folded and drawers are closed. Tracy is pushing away from her desk.

As fast as I can, I click
PRINT
and shut the computer down. The document just finishes sliding out of the printer when Tracy sticks her head inside.

“Ready?” she asks, purse in hand.

“Of course,” I say, nodding. “I was just looking around his desk because I thought maybe he found it lying around.”

“Oh, I remember those days.” Her eyes soften with the memory. “Before the war of course. High school was brilliant.”

As I walk around the desk, I slip the paper from the printer and shove it into my bag while Tracy is daydreaming. She shakes her head, clearing the memory. My eyes go wide as I wait for her to speak, terrified she saw me pull the document out of the printer.

“Enjoy your youth while you’ve got it,” she advises. If she did see, it didn’t register enough to raise suspicion. Tracy closes the door behind me and locks it securely—too excited the day is done to worry about me.

The roads being what they are these days, traffic getting home is horrible. By the time I get back to my house, it’s dark outside. It gets dark so early now that summer is over. It isn’t even seven yet. At least I have time to go over the form I printed at my father’s office. Just before I reach the phalanx of the security cameras, I pull the car over onto the dirt shoulder. I smooth out the crinkles in the paper on my steering wheel. Using the light of my phone, I scan over the document.

ANY UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ENCLOSED DOCUMENTS IS TREASONOUS AND WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE HIGHEST DEGREE ALLOWABLE BY LAW.

Mission
: OM05386

Location
: Wasteland of Texas, 31°59’ N, 102°4’ W

Purpose
: To identify active headquarter location(s) for The Revealed.

Description
: Cell traffic and eyewitness sightings of The Revealed suggest they enter through the southernmost area in the North American Sector (NAS) colonies. Analysts believe that their headquarters are located within easy access of the sector, probably established in the once-heavily populated wastelands.