VOLITION (Perception Trilogy, book 2) (21 page)

Zoe was reading on a glass tablet when I walked into the living
area after training. Her eyes moved up to greet me. “How’d it go?” she said.

“The humanoid’s tough, but I brought it to its knees.” I felt a
proud grin form on my face.

Her’s pinched with worry. “That’s good, I guess.”

“Of course it’s good. It means I’m ready. I can take the next
guy.”

“The next guy’s not programmed on ‘easy’.”

“Believe me, Fred was not
easy.”

The worry didn’t leave her face. I felt a strong need to change
the subject. I nodded toward the tablet. “What are you reading?”

“A book from Mary’s twelfth grade curriculum. Biology. I may be
a dropout, but at least I can catch up on some reading.”

I cringed at that. Zoe should be in school.

She went back to viewing the tablet. I tapped my fingers on my
leg, humming a tune in my head, wishing I had a guitar here, anything to keep
myself from staring across the room at her.

Jabez waltzed through to his bedroom and returned with his
jacket on and a package of cigarettes in his good hand. He looked at Zoe and
nodded with his chin to the door that led to the courtyard. She grabbed her
coat and left without saying anything to me.

I tensed, wanting to punch the wall. Or Jabez’s face.

Mary walked in and saw my pinched expression. “Is everything
all right?”

“Is there any way to get on-line without being tracked?” I asked,
avoiding her question. I hadn’t posted on my blog since the commune. I also
hadn’t heard how my brothers and Skye were doing. I hated being so cut off.

Mary shook her head. “Sorry, Jude. We’re off the grid here. If
we link up to the net, we expose ourselves. You could use an internet café.
There’s one nearby where I go to read blogs.”

“Yeah, okay.” I remembered seeing it. I kicked myself for not
going sooner. Too wrapped up with the fact that we were fugitives and too busy
training for a fight to save our lives.

I grabbed my jacket, but curiosity got the best of me and
instead of heading for the front door, I slipped into the hall to peek out the
window onto the courtyard.

Zoe and Jabez were smoking and laughing. My gut lurched.

Fred was there, too, like one of the guys.

Zoe spotted me and our eyes locked. Then she went back to smiling
and flirting with Jabez, stepping in closer to him. If she was trying to make
me jealous, it was working.

I had to get out of this animal house. I made it two blocks to
the main road when I started to slow my stride. I spotted the café and went inside
thankful for the dimly lit room. I hoped the guy would accept my cash. His eyes
flickered briefly to my face and I tipped the cap of my hat lower. He waved me
in.

My heart skittered as my blog page opened. If I were honest
with myself, I was glad I’d had an excuse not to post. I didn’t want to be the
guy who people looked to for direction in this new, terrifying world. What if I
stirred everyone in the wrong direction? What if people died because of this
blog? Because of me?

Fifty-seven comments on my last entry.

…is Brody still alive…

…where is our fearless leader????

My gut pitched at the next one.

…I heard he took off with a girl…

… I hope at least that she was pretty. Still not cool that he
ditched us for a chick…

One in particular caught my eye, and my heart chilled.

“Why would you listen to a guy who abandoned his family????”

It was my brother Jonathon.

I responded to the comment:
My family is in good hands. Some
things are bigger than ourselves.

A new comment popped up. Jonathon must’ve had the page opened
and live.

Some people think they’re bigger than they are.

Jab, cut, bleed.

Is everything okay?
I wanted to ask about Davis, our
little brother, and Skye who was their acting Mom.

I waited for a response, but Jonathon wasn’t talking anymore.

I shut it down. I hadn’t contacted him because I knew
Vanderveen had his eyes all over me. In fact logging in here was a bad idea. I
doubted it was secure.

Nerves rattled my body, my face sweating as a feeling of
claustrophobia enveloped me. I jumped out of my chair and dashed for the
street.

Every corner suddenly had two or three police officers or army
personelle standing on it, with guns visible and at the ready. Were they there
before? I hadn’t noticed.

It was stupid of me to leave the factory. I couldn’t afford to
be corralled and questioned. I wondered how long it would be before we would be
forced to carry ID and be stopped regularly to produce it.

I resumed a relaxed pace, not wanting to draw attention to
myself and circled back.

I wasn’t too far off in my prediction: in fact, I called it
pretty close. That night on TV, there was another Breaking News announcement.

Vanderveen’s government had made it official: the chip was now
mandatory for every citizen of all ages. Clinics were being set up in each town
and city across the country.

Chapter
29

“There’s no way in hell I’m getting one of those,” Jabez said.

“I’m with you on that one,” I said. “But you see how Vanderveen
will weed us out? He’s made it illegal for shops to take cash. It was already
hard to buy and sell without one before now. Vanderveen has just made it
impossible.”

“There’s always the black market,” Mary said. “It’s about to
get more business.”

Zoe didn’t say anything, her blue eyes dim and vacant.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

She shook her head, bringing her focus back to the room. “Yeah.
I guess. I just can’t believe it’s come to this.”

“Believe it, honey,” Mary said. “Vanderveen is one insane
dude.”

The weight on my chest just increased a thousand-fold.
According to the news report Police and Army detail was being amped up in every
city, and each member was outfitted with a portable chip scanner to check
citizen ID. The curfew would be strictly enforced.

Hiding out and protecting Zoe had just become infinitely more
difficult.

Training with a humanoid was better than training with Jabez.
For one, I didn’t have to worry about killing the humanoid, and I didn’t hold
back.

And neither did it.

I was sore and bruised but feeling strong. My flexibility
matched the humanoid’s, and I was super juiced when I successfully kicked Fred
in the neck. A maneuver that would knock out a human opponent. The same one
that took me out in the last fight.

Afterward, Jabez directed my attention to the monitor where he
played footage of my next opponent’s previous fight.

“Romeo?” I said.

“Yeah, here watch him,” Jabez said, pointing. “See how he
favors his left side? Old injury. Lost part of his spleen. Just go right.”

“And, why didn’t we review footage of what’s-his-name?
Douglas?” I asked, annoyed. “Wouldn’t that’ve helped me then?”

Jabez shrugged. “Ah, maybe. But let’s not dwell on a fight you
lost. Let’s focus on this fight, the one you’ll win.”

I was glad to hear he had so much faith in me. Maybe it was
just wishful thinking on his part because he stood to pocket good cash if I
won.

“Romeo still fights with half a spleen?” I shook my head.

“Guy’s gotta eat just like we do,” Jabez said.

“Still, he must compensate?”

“He does. Watch him. He’s heavy with his left hits and kicks.
His left arm hangs lower, to protect his side rather than his neck.”

Romeo’s advantage was that he was tall with at least five
inches on me.

“A right kick to the left side of his neck will win this for
you.”

“He’s a giant,” I said. “How am I supposed to reach?”

Jabez smirked. “Now you know what you and Fred need to work
on.”

I focused my training on developing strong high kicks, first on
the bags and then with Fred. I trained mentally and physically, beating the
crap out of the humanoid when it wasn’t beating the crap out of me, and
imagining Romeo knocked out cold.

Finally, it was two days before Christmas. The day of the
fight.

I sat on the bench in the waiting area trying not to jerk
around too much as Jabez wrapped my fists in tape. My nerves shot off with
anticipation. I had to win this.

“You are going to do great,” Fred said. My head snapped to
attention. A pep-talk from a humanoid?

“Um, thanks.”

“That’s right,” Jabez added, finishing up. “You got this, man.
You got this.”

Like last time, the lights in the gym were low, the stench of
sweat and excitement high. Was it my imagination or had the crowd swelled from
the previous fight? Were all these people betting against me? The curfew had
been changed to eight p.m. and they knew they were breaking it.

I’d honestly expected fewer spectators with the police state in
place. It meant being sneakier about getting here. If the fight club was
busted, that would be bad. It could land Jabez and Mary in jail. I’d offered to
bow out, but they’d insisted. They must’ve had a lot invested financially in
this fight, too. I couldn’t see how they could carry on for long. The police
were bound to sniff this out.

Zoe and Mary sat in the front row. I smiled encouragingly at
both of them. It was good to know that at least two people in the crowd were
rooting for me.

The caricature of the fight broadcaster’s face filled the
screen. He gave a rousing pep-rally speech for the spectators who were live at
one of the two rings and to the thousands who joined from the “comfort and
safety of their own homes.”

My opponent’s image jumped off the screen

“—and from the mid-west at a hundred and eight-three pounds, he’s
a lover and a fighter…Romeo…”

I’m a lover not a fighter.
My eyes caught Zoe’s. We both
remembered when I’d said that. I’d been explaining why I found it hard to take
up my dad’s cause.

Now I was a fighter and not a lover.

Sometimes life really bites.

“From Eastern USA,” the commenter shouted, “at a hundred and seventy-one
pounds, we have Jude!”

This time I held my head high and punched at the air, stirring
up a roar from my own crowd, whether they’d bet on me or not.

Probably not. Romeo had almost half a foot on me and even
though I’d gained a couple of pounds, he still outweighed me by twelve.

David and Goliath in the virtual ring. Did this David have a
chance?

We danced around each other. If I was going to go down, I
didn’t want to do in the first three minutes of the match.

And I wasn’t going down.

Romeo smacked a fist in his hand then waved me over, taunting
me. I kept light on my feet, knees bent, fists and forearms in front of my neck
and face like a shield.

I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. Explosions:
bam,
bam, bam, bam
. The rhythm picked up when Romeo swung. I ducked and blocked,
getting a punch to his gut.

I almost cried out. It was like slamming my knuckles into a
cement wall. Romeo broke into a smile. He was missing a tooth, a hopeful sign.
The guy wasn’t invincible. Anything could happen.

He right-hooked my jaw and I stumbled back, the world dizzy.
Jabez had two heads. They both screamed, “Left side!”

Right. His left, my right. Romeo’s weakness.

I stormed at the virtual mass of muscle and bones, jabbing his
gut,
right, left, right, right, right
. His left arm lowered to protect
his spleen.

Romeo roared and attacked. My face was his punching bag. It was
like I was outside of myself, watching someone beat the tar out of me. I hit
the mat, and my ears, though ringing, distinguished the gasp and hush that
followed. The virtual referee started counting, like he was calling out in a
barrel, “One, two, three…”

The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. My eyes grew thick
and swollen. I cracked one open, and Zoe’s blurry image filled my line of
vision.
Zoe.
What was she doing here?

“—five, six, seven…”

Then I remembered. I was fighting. For our lives. I had to win,
I couldn’t’ quit. I pushed up from the floor. The crowd noise grew, urging me
on.

“—eight, nine…”

I was on my feet. Romeo’s back was turned to me, already doing
his victory dance. He caught sight of me in his peripheral, but not before I
got in one strong kick to his neck.

Romeo collapsed like a rag doll. The referee started counting
again. This time he got to ten.

The ref declared me as the winner! I made one victory lap
around the ring and then everything went black. When I came to, I was flat on
my back. The unpleasant sensation of smelling salts filled my nose. Someone
splashed water on my face.

“Sorry, man.” Jabez’s voice. “I meant to give you a drink.” He
slipped the straw between my lips. “That was amazing, man! You beat that SOB!”

I did. I won. I let my head rest back on the mat, completely
exhausted. The only thing I wanted…

…was Zoe. Where was she?

I turned my head and like magic, I saw her face, deep lines of
concern etched around her gorgeous blue eyes.

“You’re so beautiful.” I murmured. I sounded drunk. I’d been
hit hard.

“Shh,” she said, her face close to mine. Even with my beat-up
nose, I could smell her shampoo, the scent of her skin. My defenses were
definitely down. All I wanted in my depleted state was to pull her into my arms
and fall asleep.

She stroked my cheek and tears ran down her face. “You did it,”
she said. “You won.” Her lips trembled, and I reached up to stroke them.

“We should get him cleaned up.” Mary’s voice. I focused in on
her face and registered something other than joy that I’d won on her
expression. Her eyes darted to Zoe with disapproval, and I had a sinking
feeling we’d just given ourselves away.