Repossession (The Keepers Trilogy) (30 page)

Thinking fast, I stepped forward. “This
is
me. I’m doing this for the entire human species. I’m doing this because I believe it’s the only chance we might have to survive, and the Invaders can give us that. You’re right. The activation only influences me. I still have free will. And I’m telling you, this is the answer, Jet. Please, get down from that thing and stay with us. If you try to escape like this, they’ll be forced to shoot you down and imprison you.”

“They were going to kill us anyway, don’t you get that?”

“They wanted to, but I chose you as recruits for Foundation Zero so you wouldn’t be left behind. To save you. As the Seventh Shepherd, I have a say. You running like this is ruining all of that, and for what?”

“Let me ask you something, Skylla.” His glower could’ve burned my flesh right off. “Do you honestly think they’re sending those who don’t get recruited for Foundation Zero back to Prototype Seven? You think they’re shipping them all on a first-class flight back to Earth? They’re
killing
them. Here, in Lucenta. Putting them down like dogs in a shelter. They’re lying to you, and you’re buying their bullshit.”

My jaw clenched as his words hit me, and a sliver of doubt crept in. He was either lying himself, or his claim was true and I was just too willing to accept it because of my chosen loyalty to the Invaders. “You don’t know that.”

“I don’t?” He sneered at me, then glanced behind him to Hera. “Sunshine, give me the bag.”

Hera reached up and handed him a backpack, passing it over the seat. As she did, the flap opened and out fell a teddy bear. It tumbled down the side of the Capsule and dropped to the ground, landing at my feet. My brain registered the memory of it, and how I’d found it in the woods on mine and Jet’s journey to find Hera.

I bent down and slowly lifted it from the ground, staring at the ratty stuffed animal as if it could unlock some explanation for why I’d once felt so strongly for Hera and her brother. I broke the distraction and handed the bear back to Hera.

“See for yourself,” Jet said, tossing a flat device to me from above. “The proof is there. We took photos of the execution sector, right here in Lucenta. Humans are being herded there, told they’re being transported back to Earth, but they’re actually being sent to their graves.”

My fingers fumbled with the flat screen, sliding the images from left to right as they appeared before me. A picture of a mother and her daughter being shoved forward into a metal, bloodstained room made my stomach roll. I looked away. “How did you get these? And how are you invincible right now?” I chucked a glance over my shoulder at an impatient Elara, the Invaders, and the other Shepherds.

“We have these,” Hera’s voice called my attention to the backpack. She held it open, revealing a heap of vials that looked similar to those Kale gave us when we arrived at the base station. “One of the guards at the execution sector helped us rig the Capsule, and gave these to us.”

“Yeah,” Jet said. “And the risk he took with his life to help us get out of here will be for nothing if we don’t leave right now.”

“Come with us, Skylla,” Hera said, her beautiful eyes boring down at me. The dark wisps of her straight hair framed her innocent face. “I know you don’t feel it, but you love my brother. And he loves you. Please, we need you.”

My eyes flitted to Jet’s, and he looked away, his expression cold and guarded. “Well?” he asked, keeping his gaze trained straight ahead. “What’s it going to be?”

Kale called my name again, and I couldn’t help looking back. His expression was full of concern, his body arched and ready to spring toward me. The others restrained him, muttering things I couldn’t make out. My fingers clenched tight around the photo viewer Hera had handed me, and I turned to give it back to her, my thoughts solemn. “What are you going to do when you get back to Prototype Seven?”

“Going back to Rico. Going to show everyone these photos, then keep fighting these things until every last one of them is gone. And then find another way off the planet.”

Now it was my turn to ask. “Do you hear yourself, Jet? You’re on a suicide mission.”

He still didn’t look at me, but I could tell my words stung him. “At least it’s my choice. I won’t let them decide my fate. I’ll go down fighting.” He adjusted his harness and directed Hera to do the same. “Leave, Skylla. Now.”

Hera straightened in her seat while Jet’s fingers danced over the Capsule’s control panel. The vehicle’s lid began to slide shut above them, and my arms flung forward, lifting me up the side.

“Jet, wait!” Hera yelled, garnering her brother’s attention.

“Hurry,” I said, slipping in behind Hera. One look out the Capsule window as it clamped down over our heads, and my stomach dropped. The anger and disbelief etched on everyone’s faces fueled my desperation. “Go!” I screamed, urging Jet to move faster.

“Hang tight,” he said, launching us off the ground.

“Drink one of these, Skylla.” Hera passed an invincibility vial to me over her shoulder, along with a knife and bandage. “And you should cut your chip out so they can’t track us once we’re out.”

“You’re sure about this?” Jet said, his intense stare finding mine in the rearview mirror.

“Not at all. Just go!” I caught a glimpse of Kale’s anxious face as we shot forward and entered the hangar pad’s launch-port tunnel, and then we were gone, surging away from the hangar and en route back to Earth.

What the hell was I doing? I didn’t care about these humans, no matter how much history my memories told me I had with them. My fellow Shepherds and my Creators were back there, waiting for me. Trusting me to do the right thing. Not just for them, but for the entire human species. And Kale … God, what must Kale think, after what we’d just discussed?

Only one thing boomed loud in my mind as we rocketed into the tunnel’s darkness. The Invaders were executing those innocent recruits instead of sending them back to Prototype Seven.

No matter my desire to be loyal to them, some instinct told me this was the truth, and I didn’t need Jet and Hera’s photos to get on board with the claim. The truth was written all over Elara’s enraged features when she ordered me to stop Jet and Hera from escaping. It was plastered all over this place, and the secrets lurking in its depths. Didn’t I at least owe it to the other Shepherds—to myself and the remainder of the human population—to see if the Invaders really could be trusted?

Right and wrong, black, white, and gray, all swirled through my mind at a dizzying pace. Who was I to believe, and who could I trust? Even more importantly, could I sleep at night once I’d chosen a side? I shook my head, staring down at the knife and bandage in my lap.

Hadn’t I just chosen a side?

That was the thing about goodness, about truth and honesty—sometimes what seemed right was wrong, and sometimes, what you were so sure was wrong was actually right. The Invaders were identified as the enemies from day one. Yet here they were, with the very key to our survival in their hands, offering us a new future. That had to count for something good, right?

The Capsule jerked and jolted as it sped forward, and I could feel the gears shift as Jet guided us up and out of the tunnel, into a vertical shoot toward a blinding light.

“Jet, be careful!” Hera screeched, her knuckles turning white on the back of Jet’s headrest.

“I’ve never flown one of these things, kiddo. Just hang on, we’re almost there.”

I gripped the knife and bandage tighter against my thighs. Now certainly wasn’t the time to go cutting a hole in my neck. But Hera was right. I’d have to do it soon, or the Invaders would track us the second we made it out of the San Francisco base station. Jet and Hera said they’d rigged the Capsule, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the Invaders were already working on a way to track it right now. What would I do when I made it out of here? I was a traitor to the humans now—the very worst kind. Would Jet still protect me, as he had in the past? He had no reason to trust me, but it seemed he did, or he never would’ve let me escape with him.

“You with me, Skylla?” Jet called from the front seat.

“Yeah,” I managed, my teeth chattering as the Capsule shook our bodies to a pulp.

“I’ll protect you when we get to Earth, you know.”

“How did you know what I was—?”

“I know you.” His brown eyes jumped to mine. “You’ll remember that soon enough.”

Before I could respond to that, a fierce flash of light—gunfire—zoomed by on the left. Hera cried out, and something bumped us from behind. More fire rained at the Capsule’s sides, our visibility lessening as we blasted vertically toward the wall of light.

“They’re going to shoot us down,” Hera screamed, throwing her head into her hands. To see this girl who once seemed so fearless terrified now made my heart clench. I never liked to see any child suffer, let alone a stranger who was blindly putting so much faith into me and whatever bond she thought I shared with her brother. My hand found her dainty shoulder, and I clamped my fingers down to grip it while I whispered words of assurance from behind.

“Son of a bitch,” Jet barked, his voice rippling with the Capsule’s shaky ascent. “Drink that damn vial, Skylla!”

The vial. Which sat buried beneath the knife and bandage. I popped open the top and tossed the liquid back, feeling it drip down my throat.

Next came the knife, and the certainty that it was now or never.

I braced myself on Hera’s headrest with one hand and brought the knife to the back of my neck with the other. Pushing my hair out of the way, I pressed the blade to my skin and made a small, horizontal slice, feeling the warm blood ooze down my fingers. The vehicle bumped again before I could dig out the chip, and collided hard with the tunnel wall. The knife was knocked from my grasp, and I heard it clink as gravity tossed it to the back of the Capsule, behind my head. An alarm sounded and blue light flashed throughout the vehicle’s enclosure.

“We’re hit,” Jet said. “We’ll have to evacuate as soon as we make it out of this tunnel. Check your harnesses and weapons, now!”

I could hear Jet and Hera scramble as they prepared for emergency ejection. I forced myself to ignore the steady flow of crimson dripping onto my cheeks from the back of my neck, and hurried to adjust my own harness and weapon holsters. “I’m good,” I said, planting my feet tight against the floor to gain traction before we were hauled from the Capsule and sent soaring into the sky. Just as Jet told us to prepare for launch, a face came flashing in the side mirrors. “Kale! It’s Kale shooting at us!”

Kale’s sandy-blond hair glinted in the sunlight, and his eyes were narrow with crazed focus as he zoomed behind us, shooting fire over our bow.

The sight infuriated me. One minute he was my friend, and the next he was hell-bent on shooting me into oblivion. Then again, I’d just abandoned him.

“We’re out of time,” I yelled, closing my eyes. Whatever was about to happen when we were launched from this Capsule had better happen fast, because I was on the verge of losing myself to the same terror that had overtaken Hera just moments ago.

“When we land, we regroup and haul ass for cover, got it?” Jet yelled back. “On my mark …”

Warm sunlight hit us in a fiery blaze and we were thrust up and out of the tunnel, the Capsule alarm and the alarm’s blue light now mixing with a plume of smoke. “Now!” Jet yelled, jamming a button to his right.

A deafening crash exploded around us and ice-cold air slammed into my cheeks. Just as quickly as we were thrown from the Capsule, we were sent plummeting, straight for the Pacific Ocean. My body spiraled and the small, lightweight parachute device appeared over my head, popping open in a blast of color, jolting my body’s speed. The Capsule’s pieces plunged toward the ocean, and I stole a glance at the base station’s landing pad. A glimmer of the Golden Gate caught my attention, but didn’t hold it for long. An assembly of Invader Capsules were headed straight toward us, and I knew exactly who was at the head of that formation.

Kale.

I didn’t have another second to think. I was hurled downward in flight, being pulled toward the roaring waves of the Pacific. That sound filled my ears as salt stung my nose, eyes, and throat. Survival instinct took over; even as I slammed into the water, I reached for the knife on my belt. Struggling to cut the parachute harness and lift the metal rungs from the straps, I thrashed around under water, fighting against the current. The saltwater assaulted the cut on the back of my neck, and I bit down on my lip and squeezed my eyes shut to push back the pain.

Swimming out from underneath the parachute, I chanced opening my eyes. The roaring sound of the surface hit me, and I gasped in a lungful of water and air. A vibrating hum sounded beside me and I looked up, past the choppy waves and toward the hand reaching out to me.

There was Kale, hovered over the ocean surface in his Capsule, reaching over the side to pull me up.

“No!” I shouted, coughing wildly.

“Damn it, Skylla, give me your hand! Get in and I’ll get you out of here!”

“You tried to shoot us down!”

“And you left me to the wolves! I was pissed, and I had to make it look convincing. Now cut me a friggin’ break and give me your damn hand.”

I gave him a vigorous shake of my head, swimming backward and looking around for Jet and Hera. A heavy thrum loomed from above, drawing my eyes to the sky. Gunfire rained down in every direction as the throng of Invaders soared straight toward us.