Numbers Game (16 page)

24

I
t
was dark by the time I got back, and both teams were asleep. My body moved sluggishly, and I knew I wouldn’t last long without a little sleep myself, but my thoughts were still sharp. When I walked into the bedroom, I noticed a soft blue glow in the darkness. Semias, shirtless and bleary-eyed, was sitting up in his bed. As soon as he saw me enter, he snapped his techband screen closed, and the light disappeared.

“Didn’t think I’d find
you
awake,” I said, sitting on my bed to remove my shoes.

“I—uh, suddenly felt really hungry. I was just checking the time.”

I frowned. That didn’t require opening the screen. Surely he knew by now that our communications were blocked. “I think we’ll wait until everyone wakes up before we break out the pills.”

“Sounds good.” Semias lay back down and rolled over to face the wall. Either Semias was really tired or something strange was going on. He’d never passed up a chance to argue before.

“Vance!” Neb sat straight up in bed, and for a moment I thought he was going to come over and hug me. He seemed to think better of it and kept his blanket on. “They set you free! I knew they’d come to their senses.”

“Don’t get too excited. I’m on probation.” The words felt sour in my mouth. They hadn’t believed a single word of my testimony about Treena and the shooter. It didn’t matter. I would discover why Treena had been targeted. Something told me that if I did, the mystery of her Rating would be revealed.

As always, I lay down on my right side, where I had full view of the room. Semias and Neb had gone back to sleep, and the bathroom door was closed tight. With a yawn, I allowed myself to drift into a fitful sleep.

><><><><><><><

“You can’t pretend you’re not hungry,” Semias’s distant voice said, waking me up with a start.

“Poor baby,” Daymond whined.

There was a beeping sound as someone scanned their techband on the pill cupboard’s lock, and then Poly appeared in the doorway. He tossed the pill container to Daymond, who twisted the tube open. Apparently Poly had asked Daymond to distribute breakfast rather than wake me up. That was completely fine with me. I pulled the pillow over my head and tried to drown out the light and noise.

There was some kind of crash followed by yelling. With a moan, I shoved the pillow away and sat up. There were nutrition pills scattered across the floor. The other guys stared wide-eyed at Daymond and Semias, who glared at each other over the mess. Treena had emerged from the bathroom and stood with her arms folded, frowning.

“That was totally you, man,” Semias snapped, getting in Daymond’s face. “You couldn’t walk straight if someone drew a line on the ground.”

“Nice try, Semias,” Daymond said, “but I’m not stupid.” He held the container out, and

the guys started scooping up pills and dumping fistfuls back in. “I know what you’re doing. When we count them, I bet there’ll be some missing, and they’ll magically appear in your pocket.”

“Not so.” Semias knelt and collected a few in his palm. “Don’t blame your klutziness on me. See what a good boy I am? One for you,” he said, handing a pill to Ross, who scowled, “and one for you.” He gave one to Treena. She had come closer to help, kneeling a careful distance from Semias. I watched his hand carefully, making sure nothing disappeared down his sleeve. As the pill switched hands, though, I noticed something strange about it. Was it . . . brown?

She wrapped her hand around the pill and muttered a reluctant, “Thank you.”

I stood.

Daymond slammed some pills into the container with a decisive whip of his hand. “I swear, if you ever trip me again, Semias, I’ll break your leg. And maybe the other one too, just for fun.”

Ross swallowed his pill, and Treena had just tilted her head back to down hers when I grabbed her hand.

“Wait.” I swiped the pill out of her hand and sniffed it.

She stared at me. “What’s wrong?”

I leaped to the floor and gathered up a few more, then held them up to the light. “Freeze. All of you. Don’t touch the pills.”

The other guys glanced at each other uncertainly, but they stood and backed away. Semias glared at me. “Why? You want them all to yourself, Vance?”

“This one’s a different color than the others,” I said. “Dark and coarse. It even smells different.”

Poly shook his head from the doorway “Vance, it’s good to have you back, but you’re acting a little paranoid. They’re just nutrition pills.”

My fist was clenched tightly around the offending pill.

“Where did this pill come from?” I asked Semias.

“From the bottle,” he sputtered.

“Then you wouldn’t mind sampling it. Just to make sure it’s safe.”

“I—I already took one. Another would make me sick.”

“You? Right. You’d take a dozen a day if you could. But no rush.”

Semias glanced at Poly, who looked torn. “I didn’t poison it, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“Good. You won’t mind taking it, then.”

“Vance,” Poly said with a warning tone. “You’re looking for trouble where there’s none.”

I whipped around. “Poly, Semias is on my team. With all due respect, let me handle this one.”

Poly’s jaw tightened, and his dark eyes seared into mine. I refused to drop my gaze. This was too important to give up on, even for a man I respected as much as Poly. Finally he nodded.

“Fates,” Semias grumbled, but his voice seemed higher than usual. “I didn’t do anything wrong. You’re just jealous because I’m a high yellow.”

His defensiveness only strengthened my resolve. “You’re doing an awful lot of talking. How about we stuff that mouth with a poisoned pill and see what happens?”

“Shut up, Vance. I don’t have to prove anything.”

“I’m not leaving until you do.”

“I won’t take the stupid pill!”

“You’ll do it, under your power or mine.”

“You’re crazy, man. Poly, you’re seriously letting him get away with this?”

“Yes,” I said firmly. “He is. You have three seconds. Three.”

“I’m not. Taking. The pill.”

“Two. Why? What’ll happen?”

“I don’t know.” Semias’s voice trembled slightly. “The commander only said—” He stopped, then gave a strangled gasp.

Everyone looked at him.

“The commander said what?” Poly growled.

Semias looked like a cornered rabbit. His eyes darted back and forth, his chin set in defiance.

Poly stepped forward and took the pill, then sniffed it. “Without a microscope it’s hard to tell, but from the color and the coarseness of the leaves, I’d guess it’s baneberry. Hard to detect, but it paralyzes the heart. Treena wouldn’t have lasted an hour.”

Everyone looked at Semias. His conviction seemed to waver, and then he finally broke. “The message said to slip it to Treena. But I didn’t know it was poisoned, I swear. For all I knew, it just had extra caffeine or something.”

For a few seconds the guys gaped at each other. Treena’s face had turned a sickly shade of white.

“Semias,” I said, “as long as I’m around, you will not succeed with that order.”

“I can’t believe it,” Poly muttered, still staring at the pill.

Semias stood taller, glancing at Poly and then back at me. “I know it’s horrible and all, but we all know EPIC is a tough job. We don’t know why we do half the things we’re ordered to do. It’s not our place to question. If the commander wants her dead, he must have a good reason.” He turned to face Treena. “Maybe your little trainee isn’t what you think she is.”

I took a step toward him, my veins pulsing with anger. “We are a division of law enforcement. We’re not assassins, and we certainly don’t murder each other, orders or not.”

Team One must have felt the tension because several heads peeked in from the hallway. They watched us curiously, as if unsure whether to interrupt. Poly motioned for them to stay where they were.

I grabbed Semias’s arms and wrenched them behind his back. He struggled for a moment but stopped when I locked his wrists. “Unfortunately, I can’t let you roam free now. Not as long as you’re willing to sell us out.”

He gritted his teeth. “Treena isn’t one of us. I’m telling you, there’s something up with her.”

“Wait.” Treena’s face had turned an angry red. “Let me talk to him for a second.”

I shoved him to his knees so he couldn’t hurt her, then took a step back. She bent over and got right in his face. “You said the commander told you to do it. Why?”

“I don’t—He didn’t tell me why. Just that the orders came from higher up.”

There was a stunned silence. Higher up? There was only one person above a councilman.

“The empress,” Neb breathed.

Daymond grunted. “Why would the empress be after you, Treena?”

She just shook her head, absently fingering the rock necklace that hung from her neck. “I don’t know.”

“When the commander doesn’t hear back from Semias,” Poly said, “he’ll know the attack failed. He’ll just send others. The question is, what do we do with Treena in the meantime?”

I put a hand on her slim shoulder. “Protect her. Despite what Semias says, she’s still a member of our team. But I’ll tell you one thing. If the commander and the empress are desperate enough to secretly murder one of us, it means no one is safe. We can’t rest until we know what’s behind this. From now on we implement a two-person watch, day and night—one from Team One, the other from Team Two. We’ll figure out quickly who our teammates are and who can be too easily bought.” I stared into Semias’s eyes, and his gaze slid to the floor. I could feel Poly’s glare from across the room. I’d never ordered his men around before. Hopefully he agreed that this was necessary.

“What about Semias?” Daymond asked.

“Unfortunately for him, he’s stuck here. But that doesn’t mean he’s entitled to our trust. I think he’s about to get some well-deserved rest.”

“Rest?”

“Definitely.” I felt a wicked smile spread across my face. “Chain him to his bed.”

25

I
skipped breakfast. The thought of filling my stomach, even with a pill, made me sick. I’d been centimeters away from death, and Vance had saved me. Again. But this time it hadn’t been a stranger that had tried to take my life, and it definitely couldn’t be written off as an accident.

I was an anomaly in EPIC now. Instead of ignoring me like they had to this point, both EPIC teams stared at me with interest. I could just imagine the crazy stories they were attributing to my past. After several hours of training, I thought the whispers would never end. Vance seemed to sense my need for space and suggested an evening run.

We didn’t talk much as we ran, and it was nearly dark by the time we got back, sore and weary from the events of the last forty-eight hours. Poly offered me a nutrition pill—perfectly normal and from a brand-new tube, he insisted—and I swallowed it with reluctance. It didn’t kill me. I retired to the washroom, checking twice to make sure the door was locked.

Sleep eluded me for close to an hour. Every time I felt myself drifting, Semias’s face came into view.
Maybe she’s not what you think she is
,
he’d said. If Semias believed it, perhaps it wouldn’t be long before the others did as well. Curiosity could quickly turn to accusation, and tolerance to hostility. The empress wanted me dead. Why?

How had things gotten so complicated?

Two days, two murder attempts. I wasn’t safe in EPIC anymore. Vance was kind to protect me, but we’d been lucky so far. Each failed attempt would raise the stakes. Besides, there was nothing holding me here any longer. My deal with the empress was most definitely off.

The white-hot anger simmering below the surface began to cool as doubt clutched at my mind. I had to leave. But where would I go? I wouldn’t make it halfway home before they tracked me down and zapped me for not being where I was supposed to be.

My techband. If only I could get it off . . .

I thought back to Tali’s offer. She’d been wearing hers. But what about the man whose disgusting fingers had tried to shove a pill down my throat? I forced myself to think back, to remember what the room looked like. His breath had been hot against my neck, his hairy arm wet with sweat . . .

No techband. He hadn’t been wearing one that day. Somehow Tali’s group of smugglers could remove them. It was the only way for them to travel without punishment. And if they could do it, I could too. But how could I contact them? Surely they were long gone by now.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. A good night’s sleep was all I needed. Hopefully my life would make sense in the morning.

><><><><><><><

It seemed sleep wasn’t on the agenda because after another hour of restless thought, my techband buzzed. It read:

ALERT:

NATIONAL TRANSMISSION AT 2330. PLEASE STAND BY.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I heard someone say through the door.

I just sighed, washed my face to wake myself up, and opened the door just as someone turned on the bedroom lights. True to his word, Vance had posted two men by my door, Ross and one of Poly’s guys—Kraddock, I think his name was. They’d pulled Semias’s bed up against the wall and sat on it like a bench. Semias lay sprawled out on the floor, bonds still fastened behind his back, his face relaxed in sleep. He looked like a weary child several years younger than he really was. It was hard to believe he’d tried to kill me just hours earlier.

When I emerged, my guards sat taller and watched me cross the room. The only other person standing was Neb. He seemed to have taken it upon himself to wake the others. It wasn’t going well. He grabbed a random shoulder and shook it, getting a halfhearted punch in return.

Vance sat on his still-made bed in his rumpled uniform, staring at nothing. I sat down

next to him and leaned closer. “What’s this broadcast about?”

“They haven’t told me anything,” he muttered.

“But you have a suspicion,” I said. “It has something to do with our last mission.”

“An opinion, nothing more. And I hope I’m wrong.”

Someone yelped, and a pillow slammed into the wall beside us, pieces of cotton flying into the air. Vance grabbed it before it fell and tossed it to Neb, who whirled it at Ross’s head. Ross snatched it out of the air and held it just out of reach, sending Neb hurling toward the floor.

Daymond growled. “Touch me again and I will ram this pillow down your throat.”

“Give it a rest,” Poly said. He stood in the doorway, still dressed and looking worried.

All too soon another message came over our techbands as they vibrated in unison. I flipped up the screen, hearing a series of clicks as everyone else did the same. It showed a poised woman, blonde hair pulled into a bun, her makeup displaying a perfect set of high cheekbones and arched eyebrows. Intricate eye tattoos framed her green Rating: 932.

“My dear citizens,” the woman said calmly, flashing a white-toothed smile. “Today is an important day in the history of the New Order Republic of America. Tonight we wish to make an exciting announcement. May I introduce the Leadership Academy’s top student and NORA’s highest Level Three graduate, Dresden Wynn.”

A startled gasp tore from my throat.

“Thank you, Cora,” a familiar voice said, and the screen switched to Dresden. His face and hair were so overdone that he looked almost plastic, but it was him.

I couldn’t believe it. My Dresden, announcing the latest news in front of the entire country! He’d done short segments in Olympus before, and that was a big deal for a student. Suddenly I felt a little light-headed. I pressed my eyelids together tightly and opened them, letting them focus again.

“We apologize for interrupting our citizens’ nightly activities,” Dresden continued, “but this is a timely message.”

“Yes, Dresden,” the woman said automatically, and the screen flashed back to her. Now I could see that they were sitting at a large table in some kind of studio—high up, it looked like, from the vast expanse of city below them. The studio had to be on the top floor of the steel Academy Building. “Last night the military had a great victory, and now our borders are that much safer.”

“The
military?
” Neb snapped. “What about us?”

“Most people don’t know about us,” Daymond said.

“Safety is our first priority,” Dresden said through his too-wide smile. “Which is the reason behind our most recent legislation, the new location law. As you know, each citizen is required to be at a specified location according to the schedule outlined on their techband. Failure to do so will trigger punishment mode. As most citizens have little or no experience with such punishment, we would like to offer you a simple demonstration.”

“Eleven smugglers were recently captured near the border,” Cora said. “Usually, such outlaws are arrested and sent to work camps, where they finish out their lives in heavy labor. But these are citizens who stepped far outside their allowed boundaries, engaged in illegal activity, and resisted arrest. They have been sentenced to maximum-level punishment.”

I glanced at Vance, who looked as stunned as I felt. Eleven smugglers. There was only one group that could possibly be.

The two speakers disappeared, replaced by a darker screen. A group of people, arms locked in front of them, stood rigidly against a gray cement wall. They all wore the latest techband model, a sleek silver color. I strained to see faces and groaned, realizing that I recognized nearly all of them. The man who’d given me the bruise stood close to the back of the group. And there was the first guy who’d jumped me, the one Tali had called Ben. NORA had slapped new techbands on them, apparently.

My heart beat a little faster, and I held the screen closer. None of them were girls. Tali had escaped. Wait. Was that—? A hat too large for the wearer’s wiry frame rested over what looked like a young boy’s face. I drew in a ragged breath. “No.”

Vance jerked his eyes up from his screen, watching me with a serious expression.

No, it couldn’t be! This wasn’t happening. Tali had gotten away. She’d escaped before anyone else. I remembered how she’d bounded away with her bag of food after pretending to knock me out.

“Three,” Cora said in an irritatingly smooth, false comforting voice.

It was my fault Tali was there. She’d spent her last moments of freedom trying to help me.

“Two.”

“No!” I hit the call button on my techband and dialed Dresden’s name, hoping to distract him long enough to stop this. Surely he could stop it! An error message appeared. With a growl, I slammed an angry fist onto the keys and felt a painful jolt.

“One.”

Fates! Stop this now!

There was a sudden buzz, and the entire group stiffened, their eyes round in horror. Several gurgled, trying to scream, and others dropped instantly to the ground. Some thrashed around before they fell. Tali was the last one standing. She looked straight at the camera, right into the eyes of a watching nation. Her mouth was twisted in pain, but her gaze was clear and full of anger. Her body contorted as she fought to stay upright. Then her eyes rolled back into her head, and she collapsed.

An anguished cry tore from my throat.

“Thank you for your attention,” Cora said, and suddenly the announcers were back. Cora looked composed, as if nothing had happened. Dresden’s smile was frozen, his face a sickly off-white. His next words sounded hoarse. “Please—” He cleared his throat.

Cora jumped in. “Please consider this a reminder to be vigilant about your location at all times. You may return to your activities. As we align ourselves more closely to the high standards expected of us, we will be stretched and perfected in our collective quest to become the best citizens possible. Our obedience will make this nation a force greater than that which was built in the days of Rome.” She smiled, suddenly looking a lot like the sanitizing-cream ad-board model, and then gave a quick nod. “Good night.”