Wiped (12 page)

Stole from the rich. Gave to the needy. There wasn’t one Citizen in Wáikěiton who hadn’t benefitted from Lena’s night time exploits. Not one person who came to her who didn’t get the help they sought.

I’d always been in awe of Lena Carr. But right then, I was lost.

Lost in her.

Lost to her.

And lost on what to do to keep her safe.

I
n the end
, it was quite simple. The hardest part was picking who would come. Who would risk themselves by surrendering. No matter what Trent threw at me, I would
not
budge. I was prepared to leave Calvin with Irdina, but I was not prepared to stay myself.

“Can you trust her?” Trent tried, clearly a last ditch effort to thwart my forward plans. “You’re handing over our most prized possession, the one thing designed specifically to free the world.” He took a deep breath in, preparing for his next words. The hesitation alone letting me know what was coming.

I wasn’t stupid, I knew he’d resort to drastic measures.

But the pain was still raw.

“Your father, Lena,” he said, committed to his cause.

I sighed. Looked across the small space we’d congregated in to plan our attack, farther away from the u-Pol guard. Looked at Irdina. Looked at the last thing that linked me to my father. Calvin’s Shiloh unit sat beside her on the floor, as Simon talked her through what would be required.

Calvin was still Calvin, in a way. But he was not my father.

“I owe a debt,” I said, swallowing thickly. “I mean to repay it.”

“I’ll get the Lost. I’ll get them out for you.”

I spun on him, truly irate now. “You think I want
you
to go in there? You think I’d
let
you go without me?”

“Baby,” he whispered, reaching up and cupping a hot hand behind my head. He pulled me closer. Tugged me, really; I was resisting. And laid a soft kiss against my lips.

It felt final. As if he meant to say goodbye.

“You, me and Cardinal Beck,” I said, ignoring the message Trent was trying to give me. “The Merrikans are our secret weapon.”

“Not so secret,” Trent argued. “Urip will know that they’re here.”

“Will they? They’ve seen our Cardinals. Expected them. They could easily have mistaken the Merrikans for our own men.”

Trent frowned, contemplating that. If there was one thing to say about Trent Masters, he always assessed information impartially. Everything he did, he did for the revolution. Just because the revolution had moved from Wánměi, did not mean he wasn’t still thinking like a rebel.

“Urip trades with
us,”
I pressed. “The Merrikans have admitted they never traded with Hammurg. They’re an unknown quantity. The u-Pol may think we’ve left some of our Cardinals outside the walls to mount an attack, but they’ll never guess we have such strong allies.” My father had said we’d need allies. He’d brought Merrika to us. He’d introduced us to Mahiah. He’d made contact with Oztrala. And now we had the Lunnoners, the displaced D’awans. They might not have been strong, in the way Merrika was, but they were a link to a part of the world we were sure would have others.

If we were going to unite the world, we needed those contacts. Urip was only part of the goal. Free the Wiped. Contain the u-Pol. Rewrite the world.

We’d chased history to this city. To change it we needed to be bold.

“OK,” Trent finally said. “The Merrikans stay outside with Irdina and Calvin. But so does Si and Alan. We need that presence.” He needed people he could trust.

“Fine. But Beck comes with us. It wouldn’t look right if just you and I approach the u-Pol guards. We have to make it look like we’re trying to attack and break through.”

Trent’s jaw clenched. A muscle ticked, his face darkened ever so slightly. As far as plans went, it wasn’t good. But we’d always known getting into Urip would be a challenge.

“In that case, we’ll need some of his men.”

I’d never envied Trent his role as rebel leader. I’d never wanted to lead myself. Being called The Zebra and touted as Wánměi’s mascot has perhaps been the single most uncomfortable experience of my life. I do what I do. Often without thought to consequence. But every step Trent made, every instruction or order he gave, he
always
looked at the bigger picture.

And the bigger picture here was that some of us would die.

To make it look like we were attacking, we’d have to actually attack. And attacking u-Pol could only end in one outcome.

The u-Pol attacking back.

Trent signalled Cardinal Beck, who joined us in quick measure. The man could move silently and swiftly. He had stealth down to a fine art. By the look in his steady, emotionless eyes, he already knew what we’d been discussing.

“The Merrikans stay here with two of my men, Irdina and hers, and Calvin,” Trent said without even offering a greeting.

Beck’s eyes swept across the small space to me. He didn’t blink. Just nodded his head.

“I’ll inform my men. When do we move out?”

“Five minutes.”

“The order of attack?” the Cardinal pressed.

“Stealth,” Trent offered. “We make it look like a sneak attack. Conserve as many as we can.”

“Including Lena,” Beck immediately added.

“Including Lena,” Trent replied just as quickly. I might as well have not been there.

“I’ll be in the first wave,” Beck said. “You hang back.”

Trent shook his head. “You stay with Lena.”

The Cardinal smiled. I’d never actually seen him smile before. The grin even reached his eyes, which slowly shifted to my face. “My orders are clear, Masters. The President might be dead, but his command survives.”

Tan had ordered Beck to help me. And while he was at it, to keep me alive.

But that didn’t extend to Trent. Did it?

Trent was momentarily speechless. Clearly the same thoughts running through his head.

“I…” he finally managed, but no more words were uttered.

“I have my orders, Masters,” Beck advised. “I will not disobey them. Don’t waste your time.”

With that the Cardinal spun on his heels and went in search of his men. Trent shook his head and looked down at his watch. “Three minutes,” he said, not willing to address my friend’s command.

Tan and Trent had not often seen eye to eye. They’d both had my love, but it was by no means equal. I mourned Tan’s death. If Trent died, I wouldn’t survive.

Neither of us commented. What was there to say? Cardinal Beck was well trained. Honourable. Loyal. To the bitter end. He’d follow Tan’s orders over Trent’s until they’d been completed. Trent knew this. He knew the nature of command. He respected it.

His huff of breath as he straightened his shoulders was all the comment I’d get.

“You ready?” he asked.

I shook my head but smiled. “Always ready.”

The huff this time was more a laugh. “Body language, baby.” He reached up and cupped the nape of my neck, bringing me in for a blisteringly kiss. Hot but short. It was over too quickly. “I can read you like a book.”

“And what does my story say?” I asked.

He paused, thumb stroking over the sensitive flesh on the side of my neck. For a moment I thought he wasn’t going to play.

“It says you’re gonna live happily ever after. It says you’ve got good men around you, who will make that happen. It says… no matter what, you survive. No matter what. Understand?”

That hole inside cracked open again and I started shaking my head.

Trent’s hands came up and cupped my cheeks, keeping me still, nose to nose, eyes lost in each other.

“Promise me,” he whispered.

“Trent.”

“Promise me. You do what you have to do to survive.”

“We both will.” His turn to shake his head.

“Don’t be naive, baby. It’s not like you. Promise me.”

“I won’t leave you behind.
No one
gets left behind.”

“Lena, don’t you get it? Without you, there is nothing. Without knowing you’ll do whatever it takes to live, I can’t go on. This here, this moment when we take that step down the path towards freedom, it’s not what you think. It’s not for the greater good. It’s not for Wánměi. Or for solidarity or uniting a broken world. It’s not because we owe a debt to the Lunnoners or seek revenge on Mikhail. It’s for you. I’m doing this for you, baby. Don’t you get it? Even before I met you, I did everything for the promise of you.

“You are my Free Wánměi. You are my glimpse of the future. You are everything I picture when I see our nation safe. When I see the world a better place, it’s your image that flickers before my eyes. Just you. So if you don’t do
everything
you have to do to survive,
no matter what
, then it’s for nothing. None of it will mean a fucking thing.

“So, do this for me. Please, baby. Promise me, that no matter what, you will survive.”

There are no words for how I felt right then. Hollowed out but somehow filled to the brim. With love. With the potential for loss. With everything. This war was wrong. This world was wrong. But Trent Masters had always been perfection.

He was by no means perfect. But he was mine. And I was his.

Perfection.

“I’ll promise,” I said, my throat scratchy with the desperate need to cry. “If you promise something in return.”

Trent’s eyes narrowed. In the background I could see the Cardinals preparing for our attack. Beck watching us silently, as Simon and Alan and Irdina looked on with varying degrees of concern. The Merrikans had pulled back, covering our rear, but staying well out of sight.

God, I hoped this worked.

“What do you want me to promise, Lena?” Trent asked carefully.

“That you keep your word.”

His eyebrow arched. “That it? Easy. I never lie to you.”

I smiled. Then shook my head. “You’ve already made a promise. You’ve already said the words.”

“What words?”

“You promised to marry me.”

Trent blinked. I think his actual words were,
If we get through this, I might just have to marry you, Lena Carr
. I was choosing to forget the qualifier. We
would
get through this. And there was no “might” about it.

“Yeah, baby,” he said softly. “I’ll stick to my word.”

“Then I’ll do anything I have to do to survive.” While I ensured he did too.

He shook his head, a quiet chuckle letting me know he saw right through me.

“Come on, wife.” He gripped my hand and started to tug me towards the Cardinals.

“Not yet, but I will be.”

“What have I got myself into?” he groused, but I could hear the lighter tone in his words. The humour. The love.

Facing Urip, suddenly felt so very hard.

“Ready?” Alan asked as we came abreast of them.

“Are you?” Trent demanded.

“We’ve got our end covered, boss.”

The two men looked at each other, and then silently embraced. Short and sweet, one tap on each other’s back with a flat palm, and then apart. He fist bumped Simon. Gave Irdina a hard stare. She winked back, then let her eyes shift to me.

Calvin sat in her arms. She ran a hand over the side of the device. “We’ve got this,” she said, keeping eye contact. “Although, I’ll be pissed if you stuff this up, Masters, and kill all these fuckers before we can move in.”

Alan snorted, the others made similar sounds of amusement, and Trent smiled.

“You’ll do, Masked,” he said, sidestepping her swinging fist. Alan wrapped an arm around her waist holding her back. Trent sobered. “Welcome to the revolution, Irdina Sundaram.”

It was an acceptance of sorts. An honour. Irdina stopped fighting Alan’s hold and nodded her head.

Silence reigned for a suspended moment, and then Trent said, “Move out.”

Cardinal Beck started issuing quiet orders to his men, as I took one last look at Calvin in Irdina’s arms. Saying goodbye to the Shiloh unit wasn’t necessary. I’d said all the goodbyes I needed to tonight.

I refused to believe I had to say another.

I refused to believe that this would be the end.

It couldn’t be. We couldn’t allow it to be. Too many people relied on us getting this right.

I watched from our place at the rear of the guard as Beck and two of his men moved forward. My chest ached; my heart beating too frantically for my body to compensate. The pulse at the side of my neck felt too fast. I pressed two fingers to it, willing my heartbeat to slow down. I didn’t know Beck that well. I knew his men even less. But every single one of them had sworn allegiance to Lee Tan. And every single one of them had followed me, when their commander-in-chief had asked it of them.

They were as much mine now as they had been Tan’s. And I hated watching them walk towards their doom. I hated sitting there immobile, ineffectual, a bystander to their sacrifice.

It was so wrong. And I felt that wrongness right through to the heart of me. Right through to my very soul.

But getting into Hammurg was never going to be easy. And for the life of me, I couldn’t see another way around.

Beck gave the signal; silent, brief, so telling. His men -
my
men - moved in. The first u-Pol officer was killed quickly. But the timing had to be just right. The entire attack seemed too obvious from where I was sitting. Too contrived. But in the heat of the moment, when a threat is exposed, sometimes confusion can mask so much. The remaining two u-Pol officers responded with alacrity, Beck and his men fumbled as if they weren’t the cream of Wánměi’s guard. One Cardinal was knocked out. One was silenced forever. The last was used as a hostage.

The u-Pol officer that held a laser gun to his throat called out. His words were in Teiamanisch. There was no earpiece for Calvin’s translation. Simon held all of ours now.

But we didn’t need an Anglisc interpretation. We didn’t need to know what the u-Pol officer shouted. Trent and I, with the remainder of the Cardinals, moved out from our hiding places, hands raised above our heads, one foot in front of the other. The walk seemed to take forever. All I could see were the two laser guns aimed at us from the remaining u-Pol officer, their steady red dots centred on Trent’s and my chests.

My throat was dry. My heart was in my mouth. I couldn’t see which Cardinal had been killed, but Beck was the one being held hostage. My eyes met his; so steady, so calm. The u-Pol officer shouted something else. Urgent. Harsh. Guttural. I jerked at the tone. His finger moved to squeeze the trigger on the gun aimed at Beck’s head.

“No! Stop!” I cried. “Please!”

The moment stretched. I could hear the laser gun whine. Beck knew. He smiled.