Enemy Inside (Defectors Trilogy) (13 page)

“Can you shut him up?” asked the enormous officer in annoyance.

“Don’t want to rough him up any more than he already is. But if you want to be the one to tell Elwood we killed his son, that’s on you.”

The man shifted uncomfortably.

I felt the rumble of the bridge as we crossed, and even though I knew our chances of being rescued by Godfrey and the others were destroyed, I couldn’t help but feel relief. Once we were out of Sector X, there would be fewer rovers and fewer officers. If we could kill the two transporting us, we might have a shot at making it back to the rebel camp.

The cruiser slowed to a stop, and the blond man’s eyes flickered to the backseat again. He seemed nervous.

Through the darkness, I could see a figure in white approaching the vehicle. He rolled down the window, and the officer came into view. I recognized her instantly as the woman who had been stationed there when we first entered the city.

“Good evening, officers,” she said in her fake pleasant voice.
 

“Officer.” He nodded. “How are you doing this fine evening?” The blond man flashed a bright smile, and my stomach lurched. It made me sick when evil people were so friendly and cunning.

“I’m doing well, thank you.” She glanced in the backseat at the two of us.
 

Turning toward the window, I tried to hide my face in the shadows, but her eyes settled on me. Her lip curled into an angry line, and I knew she remembered me in my PMC uniform. She knew we’d tricked her. Fear laced my insides, and I hoped Godfrey and the others were already out of the city and did not try to return.

“Be careful with her,” she said in an icy voice. “She is probably more dangerous than the other one.”

The blond man smirked. “Oh, I’ve noticed.”

“I need to see your paperwork on these two. It’s the new protocol.”

“Of course.” The man handed over a slip of white paper, and a silvery insignia at the top caught my eye.

“Officer Cassidy, this is unprecedented. I’ve never —”

He cut her off. “We’re in a bit of a hurry. Elwood is very anxious to see this one.” He jerked a thumb back to Amory, who was hunched over in pain. “You understand.”

“Elwood?” The woman looked suspicious. “That one,” she pointed at me, “entered the city dressed as an officer under false pretenses concerning Captain Elwood last night. You’ll have to leave her in custody in Sector X.”

“Fine,” said the bigger officer. “You can have the bitch. She’s been nothing but a pain in the ass.”

“Elwood wants them both,” said the one called Cassidy.

“This order is only for Amory Elwood.”

“And any accomplices. She was the only one with him.” He leaned out the window in a way that reminded me of Godfrey. “She’s a defector, so it’s not like there’s a paper trail . . . digital impression, or whatever you call it.”

The woman pursed her lips. “Fine. You can go on through.”

He nodded appreciatively. “Thank you, ma’am.” The slight twang on the last syllable made me cringe.

We drove on through, and I watched in the mirror as the ruins of Sector X disappeared behind us. The highway was empty, and Amory’s groans had turned to pitiful whimpers. The officers did not speak, and I began to formulate a plan. Once we stopped or slowed down, I would choke Tate with my restraints, and Amory could grab his gun to shoot Cassidy. There was no way to communicate this to him, but Amory was quick on his feet.

Suddenly, the blond officer jerked the wheel, and we pulled off the highway onto a gravel road like the one we had taken with Godfrey. I couldn’t see anything through the pitch blackness, but I could hear the gravel crunch under the tires. It didn’t make sense.

“You lost already? You just stay on ninety-five until —”

In one motion, Cassidy turned and pointed a gun at the other officer’s temple.

For a moment, everyone sat motionless. Then I heard the mechanical whirring noise as Cassidy rolled down the windows, not taking his gun off his partner.

Tate was watching Cassidy out of the corner of his eye, not daring to move. He was panting slightly, his open hands hovering over his thighs as if he didn’t know what to do with them.
 

Cassidy fired, and I understood why he’d rolled the windows down. His mouth was set in a hard line, and his eyes were dark and empty. Ears ringing from the gunshot, I looked over to see a trail of blood splattered across the leather interior on the passenger side.

Nobody moved.

Cassidy sighed. “For future reference, that CID frequency would have been lost the second we crossed over out of Sector X.”

I glanced at Amory, who looked horrified.
 

He knew.

“I had to expedite this part before he got suspicious.” The officer twisted around to face me. “Joke’s on you. Now we just have farther to walk.”

“Why did you shoot him?” I asked, trying to block out the ringing in my ears. Everything was upside down.

“He was the real deal — a fat, useless yes-man with the PMC’s cock in his mouth.”

“And you are?” Amory’s voice was scratchy, as if he hadn’t spoken in days.

The man nodded. “I’m like you.” He laughed. “Well, technically, I’m like Godfrey.” Pulling up the arm of his jacket, he flashed his perfect square scar.

“You’re a rebel.”

He nodded. “Jared Cassidy. Thanks for not kicking me in the balls.”

I didn’t smile. “Why did you bring the PMC to the safe house?”

“Godfrey promised he’d get you out of the city, didn’t he? It was the only way.”

He threw open the driver’s door and came around to let us out on Amory’s side.

“Why?”

“Well, after your little escape incident, they knew Godfrey and the other two had been in on it.”

“Did they make it out?”

He nodded. “They’re fine.”

Jared bent to unfasten my restraints, and Amory flew up behind him, locking his own restraints around his neck.
 

Jared gasped and struggled against him, but Amory was just as tall and just as strong. He pulled back against Jared’s throat, and I could see the hard plastic cutting into his windpipe.

For a moment, that empty look I’d seen while he was fighting the carriers was back. Fear welled up inside me. Between his swollen black eye and the blood coating the side of his face, Amory looked terrifying.
 

“Amory!”
 

“He’s lying!” Amory snarled. “He could just be leading the PMC to the rebels.”

“He shot an officer!”

“The PMC has done worse.”

As crazy as he sounded, he was right.

“What the
hell
is wrong with you?” Jared spat. “I’ve been dedicated to the cause for a year. I risk my life to rescue your rogue defector asses, and this is how you thank me?”

“How can we trust you?”

“I was there!” he yelled. “The night in the bunker when you showed up. I was there when you threw Mariah to the dogs!” Jared’s face was contorted with rage, his blond hair mussed as he shook with anger in Amory’s grip.

My stomach clenched when I remembered the look on Mariah’s face as the rebels marched her out into the snow to die. She was infected, and they showed no mercy, but it was my fault she was dead . . . or out there all alone.

Jared struggled, watching me process this information. “Just so you know, there are plenty of rebels who were all for leaving you two in Sector X to die. People don’t trust you or your friends . . . not after the stunt you pulled to rescue
him
. That mission put the entire camp at risk.”

“Rulon would have let him die.”

“That’s his right!” Jared twisted against Amory, and I was impressed at his ability to argue with someone choking him from behind. “He’s the leader. It’s his call. He has his reasons.”

I staggered closer to him, ignoring the throbbing pain in my ankle. “That’s not good enough for me. When you blindly follow somebody without thinking for yourself, you give up all your freedom. That’s how the PMC took power. It wasn’t hard. People want someone to tell them what to do because it takes away their responsibility.”
 

Jared struggled against Amory’s hold, anger in his eyes. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that. That kind of talk is grounds for discharge. That kind of talk puts the entire resistance in jeopardy.”

I thought about something Ida had said to me once:
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
 

“I’m not going to blindly follow Rulon and pretend his methods aren’t their own special brand of terror,” I said.

“Listen to yourself . . . biting the hand that feeds you. It’s not like you have another choice!”

I felt a flash of anger and stuck out my arm. The burns on my forearm were just visible in the darkness. When I spoke, my voice shook. “All I know is that the only people who have tortured me were the ones supposedly fighting for my freedom.”

We stood there for several seconds, glaring at each other. I realized that my bare feet were frozen in the snow. We would not make it very far without better clothes.

“If you’re cold, there are extra clothes in the trunk,” Jared muttered.
 

I moved toward the cruiser to open the back hatch and almost fell over. I’d forgotten how unsteady my ankle was. Between the cold and my own surge of adrenalin, the pain had been temporarily numbed.

“You’ll have to carry her,” he said to Amory.

Amory let out a long, angry burst of air and pulled his arms back from around Jared’s neck. He shoved him forward — hard — and Jared fell into the snow.

“You’re
welcome,
” Jared snarled from the ground.

I glared at him as I shrugged on a heavy, oversized coat. He had risked his life to save us, it was true, but it was because he was blindly acting under orders. What was worse, I could see every bit of Rulon’s arrogance and self-righteousness etched in his smirk.

Thankfully, he had thought to bring heavy socks and boots, and I could feel the burn of sensation returning to my toes as I shoved them in. The clothes were ill fitting, but they were warm.

“So is there a reason you raided the safe house in the middle of the night?”

“Well, I knew you wouldn’t go without a fight, and I didn’t want to get shot. I figured the element of surprise was my best option.”

When we were dressed, Amory retrieved the dead officer’s handgun from the vehicle and tucked it into the waistband of his pants. He moved toward me, and I took an automatic step back — still skittish from our PMC manhandling. He looked slightly hurt, but his expression cleared almost instantly.
 

“You won’t be able to walk there on that broken ankle.”

“I don’t think it’s broken,” I lied. I turned to Jared. “You’re an idiot. I could have been killed falling from that fire escape.”

“You jumped.”

“I would have landed right if it weren’t for you.”

“The plan would be totally screwed up if you escaped.”

“Now just my ankle is totally screwed up,” I mumbled under my breath.

I allowed Amory to hoist me off my feet. The horrible, vacant look was gone, and he was warm and gentle. I put an arm around his neck, more to be closer than for stability.

“Start walking,” he barked to Jared.

We trudged through the snow, the wind biting against our raw, frozen faces. In case we were being followed, we carved a wide, curved path through the snow. Luckily, the new snow would cover our tracks when the PMC came looking. I didn’t know where we were. The gravel road Jared pulled off on wasn’t the one that led to the PMC off-site storage area.
 

I knew it was a long way off, but it seemed much farther through the snow. Amory never let on that he was tired, but I felt terrible not being able to walk myself. After an hour, I suggested we stop to rest, but Jared shook his head. I didn’t argue; it was safest to keep moving in case the PMC was following us.

“Do you want me to carry her for a bit?” Jared asked. “She must be getting heavy — no offense.”

Amory glared at him but didn’t say a word. I knew his arms would fall off before he admitted he was tired. We walked on, and the air seemed to grow colder. We were definitely getting closer. The trees were denser here, and we seemed to be moving up an incline. I thought of Greyson and Logan and hoped Jared had been telling the truth when he said they were all right.
 

The thought sent a wave of guilt down my spine; Rulon could not have been kind when they returned from an unauthorized mission with his stolen maps and the PMC on their heels. Would it be more difficult for the rebels to steal supplies from the city now that Godfrey and his fake identities had been compromised?
 

Now that we were out of the oppressive grip of Sector X, I could not deny that the mission to rescue Amory had been foolhardy and selfish. My judgment had been clouded by a horrible feeling of helplessness I felt from doing nothing in the rebel camp and by the constant fear looming over us in the city. Now that Amory was safe and we were out, the whole thing seemed very reckless, but I knew I would do it all over again to save him.

I peered through the trees, and my heart jumped. Even in the dim light of the early morning, I could just make out the cleared slope of the hill near where the lookouts were stationed.
 

“Stop,” I whispered.
 

Amory paused, panting slightly from the effort of holding me.

Jared didn’t stop. He kept walking toward the hill, seemingly unaware of the sniper who was likely concealed in the trees.

“Stop right there!” yelled a voice.

I looked up, and I could make out movement in the shadows. Without being able to see, I knew the watchman had a rifle trained on Jared.

“It’s me. Jared.”

“Who are the other two?” The voice sounded less intimidating now, uncertain.

“Two of ours rescued from one of the safe houses.”

There was a loud rustling, and I could see someone descending the tree with a rifle strapped on his back. It reminded me of Logan, and my heart ached to see her.