Three

  Charlie looked confused. “Sure. Sure, I’m gonna.”

  “Well?” said the man expectantly when Charlie didn’t move. “When a dog gets unruly, you got to put him down.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. As I waited, the small boy began to weep. He fell to his hands and knees and managed a weak bark. He crawled up to Charlie’s leg and pawed at his knees.

  “Ruff,” he said between sobs. “Ruff, ruff, right, Charlie?”

  Charlie, scrawny armed and trembling, held out the gun.

  “Stop it,” I said, unable to hold my silence any longer. “I let my friends go, not the kid.”

  “My pretty bird sings!” The man clapped his hands together, then paused and frowned, his neck doubling as he pulled his chin down. “I’ll hear you sing some more later, I think. First, someone needs a lesson.” He made a pouty face and pretended to sniffle.

  He grabbed the back of the dog boy’s shirt and hoisted him up, then began to drag him toward the trailer.

  “Stop!” I struggled against the net, ripping a larger hole. My whole arm was free now.

  “Charlie, she’s gettin’ free!” whispered one of the boys.

  Charlie watched the door to the trailer slam shut, and then stalked toward me.

  “You have to stop that man,” I told him desperately. “Let me go, I’ll do it.”

  Charlie’s face contorted into a twisted smile. He reached in his pocket and removed my silver necklace, and then swung it like a pendulum in front of my face. The Saint Michael pendant, along with Chase’s mother’s ring, were still hanging from the end.

  “You want this?”

  I couldn’t help it; I reached through the hole and tried to snag it. Charlie pulled the necklace away at the last second, laughing. He tried it again, only this time I glared at him, losing his gaze only briefly as the net made a slow turn.

  From within the trailer, a shot rang out. I stared at it in horror, as if I might be able to see through the walls, see what the man had done.

  “Soldiers!” called a male voice from beyond the brush encircling the campfire. This voice was older than the others, vaguely familiar, though distorted by the forest, and I searched madly for some sign of origin.

  For a moment no one moved. Then Charlie dropped my necklace, and the gun, and he and the boys scattered into the darkness. I threw every bit of strength into peeling back the net, but it spun and swayed, making the task more challenging.

  The door to the trailer never opened.

  A shadowed figure raced from behind the trees and I bucked against his sudden hold on the net.

  “Hold still,” Sean said between his teeth. Never in my life had I been so happy to see him.

  The net ripped, and I fell halfway out, suspended upside down. He tried to catch me, but his arm was weak and couldn’t support my weight. A flash of a knife, and another rip, and I fell flat on my back, the wind knocked out of me.

  “Come on!” He dragged me to my feet. “I wasn’t kidding—there’s soldiers fifty yards behind us!”

  “Wait!” I felt my way across the ground as another burst of shots echoed in the woods behind the trailer. Finally, my fingers grasped the metal chain, and I snatched it up, running after Sean into the darkness.

  He hesitated twenty steps in, and I smacked into his back. Without so much as a glance at me he cocked his head to the side as if looking for something.

  “Soldiers?” I whispered. As if in answer, another round of gunfire erupted from behind us. Several male voices began to yell all at once.

  “This way.” He sprinted to the right, and I tore after him. We ran until we reached a small dirt road, and then kept to a ditch, sloshing through the muck toward a series of houses. I didn’t hear Sean’s labored breathing, or the grunt of pain that came every few steps, until we slowed.

  A small delivery truck came into view, parked in the high grass between two houses. Only then did we speak.

  “Where’s Chase?” I gasped, a new panic enveloping my senses.

  White stars were twinkling in my vision and I blinked them away. I was so thirsty and tired since we’d stopped.

  Sean didn’t answer. He swung open the passenger door and fell back against the seat. His shirt, though still drenched with blood, was bulky around the shoulder, and as he drew back the collar I saw that it had been bandaged with the supplies we’d brought from Endurance.

  “Did you get her?” came a low voice through the darkness.

  I turned to find Jesse stepping from the shadows into the weak ring of light cast from the overhead lamp in the cabin of the truck. A small boy was thrown over his shoulder, carried like he weighed no more than a sack of flour. It was the boy they’d called a dog, and he stared straight ahead blankly as Jesse set him down. It took a moment to connect the slash of blood on Jesse’s shirt with the boy’s presence.

  That was why the trailer door had not reopened.

  Jesse and the boy were not alone. Several other boys followed him. A half dozen, a dozen. Almost all that I’d seen, including the little psychopath with the gun, Charlie. He didn’t look so tough with his dirty cheeks tear-stained.

  “The hunter,” I heard one whisper. “The one that took Will.”

  “He came back for us,” said another.

  Jesse had done this before. That meant he’d been to Endurance before. My head felt muddled. I couldn’t make sense of it right now.

  “Get in the back of the truck, all of you,” Jesse ordered.

  “Where you takin’ us?” asked Charlie.

  Jesse faced me, not those behind him. It was only Sean and I who saw his mouth tighten and his gaze fall.

  “Somewhere safe, kid,” he said.

  Another wave of dizziness took me and I gripped the open car door for support. It was because of all the running, I told myself. Lack of food and water.

  Sean stood and gripped my forearm.

  “We’ve got soldiers on our tail,” he told Jesse.

  “They took Chase,” I said. “Why didn’t you go after Chase?”

  Jesse’s eye twitched as he looked down over me.

  “You’re bleeding, neighbor.”

  He nodded at my waist, and when I looked down I saw that the glass puncture wound from the mini-mart was bleeding again. The patch of rose red on my shirt had blossomed to half of my torso.

  “Ember…” Sean pulled me back, toward the car, but I stumbled into his arms. “Hang on,” he said. My cheek rested against the bandages on his shoulder.

  “You shouldn’t have left him,” I whispered.

  I didn’t remember much after that.

  * * *

  WHEN I woke again I was lying on a couch, blinking up at the yellow water rings on a white ceiling. It was late afternoon, or maybe early morning based on the red light seeping across the floor.

  I tried to sit up, but was stopped by a shooting pain that emanated from the right side of my waist. When I pulled up the hem of my clean shirt I found a swell of bandages tied to my skin by long strips of cloth. My wound had been cleaned.

  I took in my surroundings, recognizing the antique coffee table beneath the box of medical supplies, and the wilted magazines, now stacked on the carpet beside one of the legs.

  The house with the supplies. The address: 3. The bodies on the bed.

  The mini-mart where Chase had been taken was now miles and miles away.

  I wasn’t alone; against the wall on a blanket lay a girl. I shimmied up to my elbows. The rest of the room was empty, though the floor was covered with muddy footprints, some tinged with red.

  I swung my legs to the floor, stretching a little from side to side to test my range of motion. It pinched, and stole my breath.

  Dark fingers of dread curled around my chest. How long had I been here?

  The girl on the floor lifted her hands to her face, fingers probing through a crop of dark hair. She had blond roots, so it must have been dyed.

  I looked closer; there were red welts around her neck a
nd unconsciously my own hand went to my throat, finding only rough skin where the rope had previously burned. My necklace hung loosely there, the ring and the pendant resting just over the notch in my collarbone where a round burn had been left from the Knoxville fire.

  The girl groaned quietly. One shoulder was bandaged, and her leg had been splinted. Whatever had happened to her, it hadn’t been easy.

  Then she removed the hands from her face, and my mouth fell open in surprise.

  “Cara?”

  Her gaze flicked my way, a little dazed. “Hey, sister.” I noticed then that there was a bottle of pills by her shoulder on the floor. She grabbed it and without sitting up threw back a mouthful. At the sound of her dry swallow, I cringed.

  Cara was alive. Cara, who’d let the country think I was the sniper, not her. Who’d been murdered by the FBR in Greeneville while out with Tucker.

  “I thought you were dead.” As the shock passed, my hands curled to fists. If she wasn’t so injured, I might have strangled her.

  “I thought so, too.”

  She looked smaller than before. Not necessarily thinner—though her cheeks did look hollow—but more delicate. Never did I think I would see her so broken. She looked like a different person completely.

  “What happened to you?”

  She lifted her eyes to the ceiling. “I got caught.”

  I scoffed. That much was obvious.

  “How’d you get here?”

  Her brows scrunched. “I don’t know.” She hesitated. “They let me go. Some Sisters fixed me up and gave me some meds and a ride to the Red Zone. I walked from there.”

  “Your leg…”

  “Hurts,” she finished.

  I didn’t understand how the MM had released her. I hadn’t heard of them releasing anyone.

  “What is this place?” I asked.

  “A safe house of sorts,” she said. “A hiding place. Hasn’t been used in years. The old couple that ran the place kicked the bucket I guess.”

  I cringed, remembering the bodies covered with roaches.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were the sniper?”

  She pulled open her collar, tapped the same scar on her collarbone that now scabbed over mine. “The cause comes first. It always comes first.” Her weak laugh was laced with cynicism.

  “It was my name, Cara. You killed people in my name.” My voice, raised in anger, scratched my parched throat.

  “Isn’t that what you wanted? Revenge? Well, you got it. At least, everyone thought you did.” She coughed once, then shuddered. “Don’t tell me you’re already jaded. No one has to know it was me. You got all the credit, sister.”

  “I didn’t want the credit.”

  Cara closed her eyes. “You may not have, but Ember Miller did.”

  I opened my mouth to object, but realized with a flutter of panic that it was no use. Cara was right. Just as I’d once seen two people in Chase—the soldier and the boy I loved—she now saw two people in me. The sniper, who thirsted for revenge, who called the people to fight through the Statutes, and the real me. The girl behind the curtain.

  The girl who nobody really knew but Chase.

  If I didn’t find him, I would be lost.

  “DeWitt said it was him anyway,” I remembered. “We heard it on the radio. He was captured, and told the MM he was the sniper.”

  She lowered the bottle and stared at the ceiling.

  “Endurance endures no more,” she said. “I guess he got me out after all.”

  Her words triggered a memory. The night I’d snuck out in search of Chase, and instead overheard Dr. DeWitt talking to someone at the cemetery.

  “It’s not going to jeopardize the mission. We’ve already verified what the girl said. A quick extraction, that’s all we’re talking about.”

  Had DeWitt been talking about Cara?

  “You think DeWitt arranged for you to be let go?” I asked.

  “We’re not so different, you know,” she said quietly, avoiding my question. “They took my mom, too. For harboring the enemy.”

  She propped herself against the wall, expression pained. Her jaw was swollen, a collage of brown and purple, and her bottom lip was cracked and bloody. She shook the bottle of pills, the excess making a rattling sound. The strained lines beside her eyes relaxed. I wondered how many she’d taken.

  I tried to clear my head. Sean had said the soldiers had followed us from the mini-mart to the Lost Boys—it would only be a matter of time before they tracked us to this house.

  “We need to get out of here,” I said.

  Something caught Cara’s attention over my shoulder and I turned to find Sean coming down the hall where the bodies had been. He reached me in three long strides, a look of urgency on his face.

  “You’re awake. Finally.”

  He sat beside me on the couch and gave me a hug so hard we both winced. I glanced over his shoulder to the window, where outside the morning sky was turning gray from the clouds rolling in off the ocean. “How long have I been out?”

  “Seven hours,” he answered, pulling back. “Not that I’ve been counting. Jesse brought us here. All of us. Those boys, too.”

  “Help me up.” Chase had been with the MM for seven hours. I couldn’t think of what had happened to him during that time. I wouldn’t think of it.

  “Jesse told me about Endurance,” Sean said, lowering his voice. “He said you found Becca in the grove with the others. I’ve got to go find her.”

  He looked more serious than I’d ever seen him.

  “They took Chase,” I said.

  “I know.” For a second he didn’t say anything, and then he grabbed my shoulders. “He’s my friend, too, Ember, but you can’t stay here. You have to come.”

  “I have to find him.” He made a noise of frustration, but I could see in his eyes he’d expected this answer.

  “You’d better hurry,” said Cara.

  Something about her tone made my blood turn cold.

  “Why?” She hesitated, and I kneeled beside her. “Why, Cara?”

  She took another swig of pills and in a flash of fury I slapped it from her hand. What few remained spilled across the dusty carpet.

  “The walls are about to come tumbling down.”

  I rose slowly.

  “We’re going to bomb Charlotte,” she said. “Just the way they bombed us in Chicago. Just like they did with the safe house.”

  CHAPTER

  21

  IT took a moment for her words to sink in, to push past the buzzing in my brain.

  “We have bombs?” Sean asked.

  “They have bombs,” she said. “Long distance explosive devices. We have access to their control panels.”

  And access to the census reports for each base, as I’d seen documented in the radio room. We knew how many soldiers in each region would be attending to Charlotte for the chief’s party. The amount of damage we could do took my breath away.

  “Three has people working in the FBR,” I said, remembering what Rocklin had told Chase and I our first night there. “It’s how they assured that Endurance wouldn’t get bombed like the safe house or Chicago.”

  Some good that did. They found Three’s base anyway.

  “That doesn’t make sense,” said Sean, crossing his arms over his chest. “If that were true they wouldn’t have let the safe house get hit.”

  “We had no choice.”

  Sean and I turned to find Jesse, his face and clothing smeared with grime, striding through the door. He wiped his palms on his pant legs as he crossed the room to where Cara lay.

  “Hey, Jesse,” she said, eyelids heavy.

  They knew each other. How, I had no idea.

  “What does that mean, no choice?” asked Sean.

  When Jesse didn’t answer, Sean blocked his path, standing between him and Cara. Next to Sean, it was clear how much taller and physically imposing Jesse was. The tattoo on his neck glistened under a fine layer of sweat. For a moment I thought he
might fight Sean—his bloodshot eyes flashed with something feral and dangerous—but when Sean lifted his chin in challenge, Jesse rocked back on his heels and put his hands on his hips.

  “The location of the safe house had already been compromised. Our men on the inside had no choice but to follow the Bureau’s orders and take it down.”

  “What are you talking about, our men?” I gripped my side, feeling weak, as another piece fell into place. “You knew they’d bomb the safe house. That’s why you weren’t there.”

  He didn’t answer. He didn’t even look at me.

  “All those people died,” said Sean. “You’re saying that Three killed them?” He sent a dark glance my way, confirming that every suspicion he’d had about this place had been true. The triple scar on my chest tingled uncomfortably.

  “Three didn’t kill them, the Bureau did,” said Jesse, passing Sean to reach Cara.

  The Bureau may have killed them, but Three let it happen.

  “They could have at least warned them. They could have tried to evacuate.”

  Jesse twitched. “I tried to warn them. I wasn’t fast enough.”

  He’d told us he’d been in the woods. Sarah had been by the beach. He’d saved her, she’d said.

  “How long have you been with Three?” I asked. The location of the president’s hideout in the mountains. The men Jesse had killed in Chattanooga. The soldier in the cage at the cemetery. He’d known all along Endurance would be there, that they’d bring us in without question.

  Cara snorted. “Oh, I’d say awhile, huh, Jesse?”

  He kneeled beside her, picked up the nearly empty pill bottle and with a grim look stuck it in his pocket. “There are choices we have to make that aren’t easy. Save the safe house, or save the mission. Either way we lose good people.”

  “You could have stopped it,” Sean said.

  “And lost the chance to strike back,” countered Jesse. “Right now our people are outside of Charlotte, waiting for it to fall. Ready to claim our victory.”

  This had been the plan all along, the orders that the fighters would receive once they arrived. Without knowing it, I’d called the people to join them.

  “Chase could be in Charlotte.” My knees grew weak, and I leaned against the side of the couch for support. “Your nephew could be in Charlotte.”