Estranged (39 page)

Kalei replied, “But this doesn’t seem
normal. Lecia may be stupid, but not like this. How do we know she—
How do we know she isn’t like Josh?”

“
We cannot be certain.
Everyone adjusts to the transition differently, and it is quite
possible she will snap out of this. All we can do is give her
time.”

Lecia muttered, “I... have something
to do.”

Kalei looked up and found that Lecia
had wandered over to Erit’s terminal. She held something small in
her hand, something like... a thumb drive. The same thumb drive
Landen had confronted Xamic with. Kalei recognized it by the Tusic
logo on the front, and a small chip missing out of the side of the
plastic case.

Kalei sprang for the terminal. “Lecia!
No!”

Before she could make it across the
room, Lecia plugged it in.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Reunion

“
Shit!” Kalei pushed past
Lecia and pulled the drive out of the computer. Still holding it in
her left hand, she reached for the mouse and woke up the computer,
intent on stopping whatever program might have been
activated.

Walker rushed over. “What
happened?”

Kalei handed the thumb drive to him.
“She plugged this in. Could it be the worm?”

“
Shit! Jenna, did anything
happen on your end?” Walker went to the back of Erit’s computer and
started unplugging network cables.

“
Nope. Nada.”

Meanwhile, Kalei looked over the
windows on the screen. Nothing new seemed to be open, and she
didn’t even know where to start looking for a worm. But before she
could do anything, Walker came back and shooed Kalei away from the
computer, sitting down in her place and opening programs she had
never seen before.

“
Is that the worm
program?”

“
No. Now stop asking
stupid questions and let me do my job.”

Erit joined them and asked, “What’s
the damage, Walker?”

Walker was quiet for a moment as he
typed like mad, windows opening and closing on the screen. And then
he said, “Nothing. I can’t find anything.”

“
Maybe I pulled it out in
time?” Kalei suggested.

“
Maybe, but I won’t know
for sure until I run a full diagnostic on the system.”

“
Okay.” Erit turned to
Jenna. “Call back all the Wardens in the field. Tell them to
establish a full perimeter within the fence and double the guards
on solitary.”

“
Which? We only have
enough people to do one or the other,” Jenna pointed out in dull
pessimism.

Erit cursed eloquently beneath his
breath. “Focus on the gate and the fence. We’ll provide back-up to
solitary as needed.”

“
It still won’t be a full
perimeter. We’ll only get about half the fence.”

“
Just do it. Kalei, grab
Lecia. We need to go find Terin.”

Lecia was still blissfully ignorant of
the panic going on around her, and she readily followed along at
Kalei’s suggestion. They found Terin on the third floor, checking
in on some new recruits as they learned to spar.

Erit interrupted and pulled Terin into
the hall, explaining the situation. When Erit mentioned Lecia’s
role in inserting the thumb drive, Terin walked over to her and put
one hand on her left temple, closing his eyes as he did so. Kalei
started to say something, but her phone went off.

Annoyed at the timing, Kalei stepped
away to answer it. She didn’t even bother checking the caller ID;
only one person knew her number. “Marley, this had better be
important, because—”

“
It is. Xamic was just
spotted in Tech Town. Reports say he’s standing on the fountain
outside the entrance to Stanley Park, yelling at pedestrians about
a party. Frank says he looks like a freaking frat boy trying to get
everyone pumped for homecoming. We have people heading there now,
but we don’t want to make a move until SWORDE gets
here.”

“
Got it.” Kalei moved to
hang up, but Marley said, “Hey, how’s Lecia doing?”

“
It’s–complicated... I’ll
see you in T-Town.” She hung up the phone. “Terin, Xamic’s been
spotted outside Stanley Park.”

Terin opened his eyes and slowly
pulled his hand away from Lecia, showing no indication that he had
heard her. He said, “Lecia should be fine now. Have someone take
her to a recovery room.” He turned and started walking to the
stairs, Erit following after him.

Kalei shouted, “Hey! Where are you
going?”

“
T-Town.”

Kalei caught a passing Warden and
instructed him to take Lecia to a Recovery Room. Lecia still seemed
confused, but her eyes were clear and beginning to focus. Kalei
chased after Erit and Terin. “What was wrong with her?”

“
Xamic.”

“
Yes, I know we are going
to see Xamic, but what was wrong with her?”

“
I told you. Xamic is what
was wrong with her.”

“
You mean he—”

“
She’s fine now. Get
suited up before I leave without you.”

Kalei took off to do as she was told.
Time had finally run out; they were about to get their
answers.

SWORDE responders pulled up to Stanley
Park in two vans, blocking each end of the street as a crew of ten
fully suited and armed Wardens stepped out. They took up positions
behind the row of parked cars lining the outer edge of the park,
training their weapons on Xamic, watching him carefully.

Kalei climbed out of the cabin of the
first van, along with Terin and Erit, and she followed the two
not-so-young men as they moved to stand behind the Wardens. Terin
didn’t crouch behind the car or pull out a weapon. He simply stood
there in the street, not even suited up, with Erit and Kalei
flanking him on either side. Even Erit had neglected to put on
Warden gear, leaving Kalei to feel very out of place with her two
companions.

But that was the least of her anxiety.
As she looked across a mere fifty feet to the fountain guarding the
park’s pedestrian entrance, she saw Xamic standing on the
stonework, grinning ear to ear like a boy who knew it was his
birthday. Kalei swallowed and fought off the urge to duck down
behind the cars with the other Wardens.

Xamic saw the show and
clapped his hands together. “You made it! Wow.” Xamic fixed his
eyes on Terin, his mood becoming grim. “You finally grace us with
your presence. It’s been, what? Nineteen years? I’m sure Erit here
would say that time flies, but for me, it felt like nothing less
than centuries.” Like flipping a switch, Xamic’s face brightened
again, and he casually waved off the mood. “But that’s all over
with now. You picked a good day to come out of your hidey-hole,
bud. You’re gonna be glad you didn’t miss this. Now, let’s get this
party STARTED!” He gave a
WHOOP!
and hopped off the fountain. “Hey, coppers! Fuzz
heads! Get out here before I have to do something stupid. Yeah, I
see you with the newspaper. Cut the crap. You’re going to want all
eyes on this baby!”

A man on the corner lowered his
newspaper and turned to give his full, frowning attention to Xamic.
A couple more cops stepped out of the coffee shop across the
street, hands on their guns. Marley climbed out of his sedan,
shotgun in hand.

Xamic noticed the shotgun and laughed.
“See! He’s got the right idea! You other boys better man up! Your
little pistols ain’t gonna do dick!”

Terin shouted, “Xamic! What’s the
deal?”

Xamic held out his arms and grinned.
“Check it out!” He had a small remote in his hand. Kalei raised her
rifle, but before she could lift in an inch, his thumb slid over
and pressed the button.

Four of the Wardens dropped their
heads back and released a frenzied roar. Similar sounds drifted
from the park and echoed off the city streets. Then the four
Wardens ripped off their gloves and tackled their
comrades.

Kalei moved forward to break up the
madness, but then she heard Xamic yell, “Alright! It
begins!”

She looked up in time to see Xamic
tear off into the park, Terin flying past her after him, shouting
over his shoulder, “Erit! Find the source!”

Kalei dropped her rifle and ran after
them, determined to help Terin put an end to Xamic. Breaking up the
scuffles wouldn’t help. They had to take out the
mastermind.

They had just passed inside the gate
when Terin noticed her and ordered, “Go back to Erit.”

“
Like hell!”

She expected him to protest, but Terin
grunted and kept running. Kalei was relieved that he had his
priorities in order. All that mattered now was taking out
Xamic.

Xamic was already at the far end of
the path, and the gap between them was only widening. Gritting her
teeth, Kalei shifted her darkness to all the necessary muscles and
took off at twice the speed. She passed Terin and started gaining
ground on Xamic, unable to contain a wolfish grin.

She was only a few feet away when
Xamic looked over his shoulder and flashed a grin to match her own.
Then his speed tripled, leaving her in the dust. Before Kalei could
react, Terin flew past her, matching Xamic’s burst of speed step
for step.

Kalei growled in defiance and tried to
force more darkness into her legs, but she had nothing left to
give. The pair easily outmatched her, like a pair of motorcycles
outrunning a jogger, and as they disappeared around a distant bend,
Kalei was forced to stop and catch her breath.

She walked over to a nearby tree and
braced her hand against it, impatiently waiting as her darkness
worked to alleviate the physical strain from her sprint.

Xamic was getting away, and there was
nothing she could do about it. Kalei screamed and punched the
tree.

She took a couple more breaths, and
then she heard another scream immediately behind her. Kalei jumped
and spun around, just in time to catch a tackle from a young woman.
The two fell to the grass, the young woman pulling and tearing at
Kalei’s clothing as Kalei tried to seize her attacker’s frantic
hands.

Jenna’s voice came over the intercom:
“Attention all Wardens, a riot has broken out in the Downtown
district. Also, the Northeast fence has been breached. All units
are authorized to use any means necessary to take them
down.”

Kalei finally managed to grab the
woman’s left hand, and was not surprised to find that the nails
were black. But the woman’s right hand moved even faster now that
the left was seized, and the woman shrieked hysterically as her
attack failed to expose Kalei’s skin. Grateful that the woman was
half her weight, Kalei rolled the woman off of her, releasing the
woman’s hand as she reached for her Taser. The woman let off
another shriek as both women climbed to their feet, and then she
charged after Kalei. But before she could take more than a step,
Kalei shot off her Taser and the woman dropped to the ground, her
body seizing to the tune of 50,000 volts.

Kalei dropped the Taser and pulled up
her comms, hailing Jenna on a private line. Her sister answered
with a distracted, “Yeah?”

“
Jenna, what the hell is
happening?”

“
Shit hit the fan, Kalei.
Every Estranged in the district is goin’ nuts.”

The woman moaned softly from the
ground. Kalei kneeled down, pulling the woman’s hands behind her
back and securing them with one of the zip-tie handcuffs from her
belt pocket.

As she worked, she asked Jenna, “How
did they break through the fence?”

“
Fifty of ‘em just charged
straight at the damn thing. The first dozen of ‘em fried, but the
others broke through. Damn idiots managed to short out the entire
system.”

“
Well, have
they—”

“
Shit!”

“
What?”

“
There’s another riot
being reported in T-Town. Somewhere near the new courthouse. New
Port is being slammed too.”

Kalei stood up, facing the path that
led to Tech Town. “The T-Town riot, is it around the Luxury Grove
Condos?”

Jenna paused. “Yeah, looks like that’s
in the damn center of it.”

“
Shit!” Kalei turned off
the comm and took off down the path.

She had just finished shifting the
darkness to her legs and was getting ready to put on speed when she
heard Xamic laughing. She stopped and turned around in time to see
him walk out a side entrance to the park.

He was
walking
.

Kalei took one more glance over her
shoulder, at the wooded park path that led to the Tech Town
entrance, and then turned away to go after Xamic.

He didn’t seem to notice her, so Kalei
followed from a distance, like a cat trying not to spook a speedy
mouse. She ducked behind cars and crouched behind newspaper boxes,
and as she carefully followed Xamic’s steps, she realized Terin was
nowhere to be found. Kalei didn’t put too much thought to it,
though. She assumed Xamic had lost him in the park
somewhere.

Xamic led her down alleyways, across
wide streets, seemingly oblivious to what was going on around him.
Cars were stopped dead in the streets, locked in a sudden, mid-day
traffic jam. The screams of men and women frequented the air,
occasionally followed by the sound of shattering glass and crashing
metal. Kalei found herself dodging through panicked crowds as
police officers climbed the highest objects they could find,
megaphones in hand as they ordered people to go home and lock their
doors. She had no idea what had caused this mayhem, but she knew it
had something to do with Xamic’s red button. And she knew Estranged
were probably the source of all the screams.