The Collector (8 page)

Wade nods to confirm. Paiton nearly knocks him over as she leaps into his arms and bombards him with more kisses – on his cheek, his forehead, his neck. Wade laughs as he spins her around, then sets her down.

“They wanted me to take a kid to the tunnels. I couldn’t do it. This boy…I could be his older brother. I know we wanted to wait. To save. But I just…”

“It’s not your fault,” Paiton consoles him. She strokes the side of his cheek until reality suddenly takes over. “Oh my gosh, they’re going to come after us. We’re not ready. They’ll take us away. I see it out this window every day.” Paiton subconsciously begins to collect every dish she can and stack them in her arms as her mind races a mile-a-minute. “We can’t go to your place. Or mine. They’ll track us like animals.”

“Just calm down,” Wade cuts her off. It’s his turn to console her.

“What are we going to do?” she asks.

Wade takes the dishes from her arms and returns them to the table. “Do you remember the old helicopters?”

Paiton shakes her head no.

“Up above the clouds, like air. Long before the Wall and no fly zones, the military used them,” Wade explains. He grabs her shoulders to reassure her, “If we get our hands on one, we can go where no one can touch us.”

Paiton’s eyes break away, unsure.

“Hey, hey. It’s me and you, love. I’ll get us away from this mess,” Wade says. He touches her chin to turn her forward. “Imagine waking up and watching the sunrise. Actually being able to see it for once. Or the stars. Have you ever seen those?” Paiton’s shoulders begin to loosen as Wade continues, “We can have a porch. And drink coffee from it. We won’t have to sneak around just to look each other in the eyes. Can’t you feel it? We’re so close. Forget assigned partners. Forget the Agency. We can raise a family. That’s the life waiting for us outside the Wall.”

The image of her and Wade’s life together brings an immediate smile. It’s magical. “Just us,” Paiton says as she reaffirms their dream life. “No one around within a mile.” She regains control over her breathing. “How are we going to find one?”

“The reactor was their base, out in the bay,” Wade reveals. “There’s one hidden there.” He notices Paiton still isn’t fully convinced. “The Agency’s old. Archaic. They’re reactionary while we’re one step ahead. We can do this. We just need to lay low while I work things out.”

It takes a long moment, but Paiton nods in agreement. They can do this. She again leaps into Wade’s arms and they celebrate their future. It’s young love at its finest. Giddy. Without care. Reckless.

Fast forward twenty-four hours and their attitudes are much different. While Neil recently learned of Wade’s betrayal and now speaks with Mazer outside on the balcony back at Headquarters, the harsh acid rain has just begun. The dirty droplets pummel the broken asphalt, pooling in potholes before spilling over into the clogged sewers.

Wade shields himself as he rushes to take shelter beneath the stairs of the elevated SectorLink platform in the slums. As he pauses to dry off, his pocket beeps. It’s his PDA notifying him of a new post by Quado on his RSS feed, BETRAYAL WITHIN THE AGENCY. Wade glances over the article, knowing the news leak is about him and his actions, when suddenly his PDA goes out: NETWORK ERROR. UNAUTHORIZED USER.

“That’s it,”
Wade thinks to himself. The Agency knows what he’s done. He hopes that doesn’t mean Jimmy was discovered; that maybe Loraine was smart enough to hide him in a location the Collectors would never look. Better yet, he hopes Loraine packed up her family and fled rather than staying in that dainty shack. He’s no fool though and he knows the odds of their survival aren’t very high. At least he bought Jimmy one extra day with his loved ones. That’s all anyone can ask for really – just one extra kiss, one extra embrace, one extra moment to spend with a loved one as we all battle against the ultimate limited resource connecting us: time.

Wade takes solace in knowing that even though the Agency is now onto him, at least Paiton is back at her bungalow in Sector A where she’s safe. To his knowledge, the Agency isn’t even aware of the link between them. They were careful never to be seen together; never to leave a trail connecting one to the other and putting the other in danger. As much as he wanted to share his secret with Neil, a secret he feels should never have to be kept quiet in the first place, Wade bit his tongue. It’s now only him who has to be careful when out in the open like this, thank goodness not Paiton – or so he thinks.

As Wade continues to wait for the acid rain to lighten, he thinks back to all that’s happened over the last twenty-four hours. It’s been a whirlwind. After solidifying their plan to escape to the island in the bay – home to the abandoned reactor as well as the former military base and forgotten helicopters – he and Paiton returned to her bungalow and shared the most passionate night yet in their relationship. Seeing her vulnerable eyes stare up at him while he held her in his arms only strengthened his resolve to succeed. Then, while she stayed back to pack their things and prepare to leave, he rounded up everything worth value – mainly jewelry and trinkets – and headed to the only place he knew that might accept these kinds of illicit items as payment. Even he only just learned of this place’s existence while out on assignment with Neil: Inna’s antique shop. With any luck, not only would the man at the counter not recognize him from when he was there earlier with Neil and Jimmy, but he’d also hopefully have what Wade was after and be willing to trade.

Wade never caught the man’s name at the counter of the antique shop. If he did, he would know it was Damian. All he remembers is Damian favored one side over the other as he walked with a limp, and expressed constant bitterness towards the very notion of life in general. However, just as he hoped, Damian did have what Wade was after and additionally was willing to trade for it.

“This is nice,” Damian commented upon seeing one of the silver pieces of jewelry. “They think keepsakes give us hope. Allow us to hold onto memories. My old partner had one similar to this.”

Wade knew keepsakes were banned, and after hearing Damian reminisce, he understood why the Agency would do such a thing. But he remained silent and allowed Damian to muse out loud as they continued with their trade.

“It hasn’t been used in a decade. It might not hold up,” Damian warned.

“It has to,” Wade responded.

Wade repeats these same words to himself as he treks on foot from the SectorLink station towards the West Bank of the polluted bay.
“This has to work. This has to work.”
He knows with his limited time, he only has one chance at this.

He reaches the edge of the polluted water and scours for his purchase, but there’s nothing but trash, weathered Agency flyers, and dead carp bones littered along the muddy bank. Just then, as he finally spots his purchase from Damian, his shoulders slump as his face falls flat.

What he stares at is a
small wooden boat
half submerged underwater, his and Paiton’s supposed ticket to the abandoned island. Damian warned the boat might not hold up, not that the boat was already completely destroyed. It’s useless. Not even Inna could repair it without a few weeks worth of work, and Wade doesn’t have more than a few hours.

Wade falls to his knees, devastated, the last bit of hope sucked from his body. His head droops as he takes a moment to regroup. He always knew this was an option should he ever go down this route and break his oath with the Agency, but at the same time, part of his young love convinced him that he would actually have a chance. Staring at the boat – at his sunken dreams – Wade now knows they have no chance at all to escape.

Just then, as he accepts his fate and rises to his feet, a voice calls out, “Looks like that thing has seen better days.” Wade cycles through his memory bank trying to recall the voice. “As do you,” the voice continues.

Wade furrows his brow. It isn’t Neil, not Slayter, nor anyone else from the Agency. It’s not Damian from the antique shop with news that Wade has the wrong boat and that his ship to freedom still exists. He’s actually never heard this voice before. Wade turns around to see that the voice belongs to Leon, head of the Brigade, accompanied by the other group leaders – Chelsea, Jace, and Brock.

Wade takes a step back from the gang, their outfits pieced together with scraps of leather, camouflage, and various other military fatigues.

“It’s transport you’re after, I presume?” Leon asks.

Wade remains silent, unsure how they knew that. He simply glares at them.

“It’s okay to talk to us. You already betrayed your people,” Leon says.

“I didn’t betray anyone.”

“You broke your oath. To them you’re a traitor and will treat you as such.”

Wade bites his lip. He knows how he’s viewed back at Headquarters now that the news of not submitting a volunteer has spread.

“First a rookie, now a traitor. A rookie traitor. Neil must be so proud,” Leon taunts. He does his best to ruffle Wade’s feathers and get under his skin. It’s working as Wade tightens his fists. “Even though your rank was insignificant,” Leon continues, “the secrets you learned are not.”

“So that’s what this visit is about?”

“It’s just information,” Leon says. “Harmless.”

Wade sees through the lies. He knows sharing this information will undoubtedly lead to the death of some of his former comrades. He clinches his jaw and holds his ground.

“Where is it you’re trying to go?” Leon asks. Glancing around, his eyes spot the deteriorated boat. “You think
that
can get you out of here? Even on its best day it couldn’t get you more than twenty kilometers.”

“Ten is all I need,” Wade fires back. “It’d get me to the reactor.”

“And hide out on a tiny island? Ha!”

Wade remains silent until Leon suddenly realizes his true intent.

“Wait, you don’t really think…? You think they left something behind?” He pauses in disbelief before continuing. “You really are a rookie. That thing doesn’t exist. Trust us, if it did, we’d find it.” Leon looks to his crew to back up his claim. “Where’d you hear that? Quado?”

Wade’s silence gives away the answer. Of course he learned it from Quado and the overabundance of posts.

“Can’t believe everything you read,” Leon states.

“Yet I’m supposed to believe a terrorist?” Wade responds. Leon’s smile fades, upset at such a vulgar name. “I’ll use it to fly over the Wall,” Wade reveals.

Leon steps closer to Wade and stares eye to eye. “We could stand here and spitball theories all night. Whether a rusted old helicopter exists or not doesn’t matter because there’s something you don’t know.” Leon smirks as he pauses before dropping the hammer. “You’re already out of time. They’re onto you. And your love bird.”

Wade’s eyes go wide, taken aback. He considers all the possibilities how the Agency could’ve linked him and Paiton together.

“Apparently you weren’t as careful as you thought,” Leon says, reading Wade’s mind based on his ghostly expression. “They already tracked down seven others that share the same name. She’s last on their list.” As Wade turns to bolt, Leon quickly grabs him. “You leave without us, you’re dead,” he offers.

“And if I join you, I’m dead,” Wade counters. “At least this way I still have my honor.”

Leon scoffs as Wade yanks his shoulder away, then rushes off, leaving Leon and the other three Brigade leaders alone by the shore.

“We gonna follow him?” Brock asks as he steps forward ready to move.

“No,” Leon responds. He justifies his decision, “It won’t be easy for them to take one of their own. This will rattle them from the inside more than we could hope to do.” Leon glances at the half-submerged boat in the polluted bay. Escaping to the reactor to retrieve a rumored helicopter, a vestige of the past when flight was part of everyday life. For a rookie, it wasn’t a bad plan.

A hand uses a knife to cut the stems from fresh figs. It’s Paiton, the pink hue in her cheeks matching her lips.

Wade steps in through the side door and spots her by the counter. He glances around the quaint bungalow for any signs of forced entry; any signs of the Collectors. He knows their tactics. They could be hiding, ordering Paiton to act normal against her will while ready to pounce at any moment. But everything checks out. The windows are sealed. The door frame is intact. There are no extra water glasses; no flipped open magazines; no abnormal scents of sweat and death in the air. Even an unauthorized record player remains untouched on a wooden stand, something any Collector would surely destroy as instructed by the penal codes.

Satisfied that they’re alone, Wade moves to the player to put on a disc. The antique device looks like something from Inna’s shop, repaired and refurbished multiple times over the years. Wade blows the dust off, not having been used in quite some time, then places the needle on the spinning disc.

The light crackle gives way to a romantic classical piece – piano, strings, a choir – the type of ballad that makes one want to grab a loved one and hold them close. It’s hauntingly beautiful, juxtaposed with the looming danger Wade knows is inevitably on its way.

Wade hovers behind Paiton, brushing her hair aside to kiss her neck. Paiton’s eyes shut, ecstasy across her face. He breathes a sigh of relief knowing he beat the Collectors here to allow this last moment, though the thought of their arrival weighs heavily on his mind since he is about to be torn away from the woman he loves. If only things could’ve been different. If only the Agency didn’t enforce all those penal codes and instead allowed people to love freely. He could see himself living here with Paiton, raising a family, and growing old together. But now that won’t happen. Now that can’t happen. He squeezes her tight at the thought of a future they will never share.

Wade’s lips travel further down her neck. Paiton almost moans from his touch, getting goose bumps, then turns and hand feeds him half a fig. As she drapes her arms over his shoulders, Wade pulls her close and attempts to lead her in a slow waltz. It’s clunky. He hides his embarrassment with a laugh.

“I’ve never done this before,” he reveals.