Outcasts (18 page)

“I don’t know what that means,” Jordan said, “but I’m all for it.”

Levi knew. Beshup was speaking of the typical Jack’s Peak superstitions. “He means that even though the Safe Lands has a lot of power right now, and they were able to destroy our villages, they can’t continue with their way of life forever. What they’ve done here is not natural. They’re already failing. And they can kidnap and pillage all they want, but over time, they’ll still fail. Life will find a way to return — whether by Beshup’s Mother Earth or Papa Eli’s Creator Father.”

“There are only six Jack’s Peak men that I know to be registered here,” Beshup said. “Tomorrow I will gather them and cut out their tags so they can attend the next meeting.”

Mason passed around the letter he’d gotten from Penelope, which gave Levi hope they would be able to get the kids out of the school.

“I was thinking we could schedule a rescue for the fourteenth of
August,” Mason said. “That would give us two weeks to plan and two more Tuesdays for me to speak to Penelope.”

“What about the women in the harem?” Beshup asked.

Levi knew Beshup would keep bringing this up, and he could hardly blame him. “We’ll help you free your women, but not until after we get the children out.”

“I cannot leave my wife to become pregnant while I wait for two weeks to pass,” Beshup said.

“I understand, Beshup, I really do.” The mere idea of Jemma being captured, especially now that she was Levi’s wife … maddening. “But we’ve been working on our plan to free the children for a while now. And if you and your men will help us, we’ll free the Jack’s Peak children as well. Are you with us?”

“I cannot see any reason to stand against you,” Beshup said, though he did not look at all pleased.

“I brought supplies for Jemma to use when Naomi goes into labor.” Mason patted a fabric sack on the chair beside him. “And has Shaylinn reduced physical activity? Omar, how are you two holding up?”

Nuts. Levi looked at his baby brother, who straightened in his chair.

“Me?” Omar said. “What about me?”

“I haven’t told him,” Levi said. “It’s been a little crazy with the move and Bender’s demands and everything.” But he felt like a coward. He’d talked to Omar at the bunker on Thursday. He should have told him then. And he hadn’t exactly tried to track him down yesterday. He should have.

“Told him what?” Jordan asked.

Maybe the news would be best received in a group. More bodies to hold Jordan back when he tried to kill Omar. “Why don’t you tell us now, Mase?”
Coward. Elder Coward.

Mason stared at Levi a moment. “Gee, thanks, brother.” He shifted in his chair. “Um … well, first of all, Shaylinn is carrying twins.”

“
Two
kids?” Jordan asked. “Hogs teeth! How can you possibly know that?”

“I looked up her file in the CompuChart,” Mason said. “And
Ciddah told me that when they do embryo transfers, they always try for multiples. Beshup, you should know that they’re trying for three with your friend Kosowe.”

“My cousin is no man’s wife,” Beshup said. “And now she never will be.”

Levi rubbed his hands over his face. The nightmares never ended in the Safe Lands.

“Speak English, Mason,” Jordan said. “I can’t understand doctor talk.”

“They put multiple babies in every woman in hopes that she’ll birth more than one,” Mason said.

“They’re trying to repopulate the Safe Lands,” Zane said. “That’s just the way things work in the harem.”

“Poor Shay,” Omar said, rolling his vapo stick along his thigh. “It’s not right.”

Levi could only stare at Omar. How was he going to respond when Mason told him the rest?

“What else?” Jordan said, practically yelling. “You’re all acting like maggots. Is Shaylinn infected? Is that what you’re hiding?”

“No. Her donor wasn’t infected at the — uh …” Mason took a quick breath. “He was from, uh … Glenrock.”

“What!” Jordan stood, and the rocking chair he’d been sitting on bounced back and forth behind him. “I never donated a thing.” His eyes were wild and desperate as he looked to each of them as if to prove his point. “Levi?”

Here we go.
“Neither did I.”

Mason sighed. “Nor I.”

“If none of us made donations, who’s the father of Shaylinn’s babies?” Jordan asked.

Mason looked at Omar.

Jordan’s head turned slowly, and his desperate expression morphed into an angry one. “You dung-licking maggot!”

Omar’s eyes bulged, and he looked from Jordan to Levi to Mason. “You can’t know it was me.”

“I can, actually,” Mason said. “The donor’s ID number for both fertilizations was 9-G1. What was your Safe Lands ID number, Omar?”

Omar’s face went very pale, and a soft moan seeped from his lips. “I – I … didn’t know that, that it would …”

Levi couldn’t help but feel sorry for his brother, but he needed to say something elder-like. “What did you think would happen?”

“You didn’t think, as usual.” Jordan growled, and it grew into a scream as he pulled at his hair. “
My
sister. Hogs teeth, my
sister!
”

“I must point out that Shaylinn would be pregnant whether or not Omar donated,” Mason said. “She was ranked first. If they hadn’t used Omar’s sample, they would have used another.”

“That’s true,” Zane said.

Omar cowered in his seat, his hands on the sides of his face. “I’m sorry.”

“You’ll have to stop seeing Red,” Levi said, glad for any reason to get his brother away from that conniving woman. “If you’re going to be Shay’s husband.”

Omar’s eyes met Levi’s. “Husband?”

“Oh, no,” Jordan said, pacing inside the circle of chairs like a bull in a pen. “Don’t any of you think I’m going to let this pathetic excuse of a man-child anywhere near my sister.”

Levi folded his arms. “But he’s the father, Jordan.”

“I’d rather Shaylinn’s children think their father died beside mine in the raid than have this maggot in their lives.”

Omar lifted his vapo stick to his lips and inhaled, his eyes closed.

“Now, wait just a minute, Jordan,” Levi said. “That’s not really how things work. Plus, Shaylinn should have some say in this, don’t you think?”

“She’s too young to have a say,” Jordan said. “I’m her guardian.” He poked his chest. “I say.”

“Shaylinn is smarter than you think.” Omar, still hunched like a scared dog, blew out a quick breath of black vapor and glanced at Jordan. “And she’s — ”

Jordan lunged across the open floor, grabbed Omar’s shirt, and lifted him out of the chair. “Don’t you dare speak her name, you — ”

Levi jumped up and wedged himself between Jordan and Omar. “Come on, that’s enough. We’ve got important things to discuss here.” He elbowed Jordan in the ribs. “I said, back off, Jordan. Let go.”

Jordan snarled and pushed Omar back into his seat, then thundered out of the living room and into the kitchen. Levi followed him.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Jordan said when Levi reached him. “I mean, why’d she have to be first? She’s only fourteen. Why not Aunt Mary or Eliza or one of the others? Why Shaylinn? And why
him
?”

“I don’t know,” Levi said. “But, Jordan, Omar and Shaylinn might have gotten married any — ”

“No. It wouldn’t have happened. Your father was going to send Omar to Jack’s Peak. And then Shaylinn could have married Trevon,” Jordan said. “I like that kid.”

Levi had to bite back a laugh. “Trevon is ten!”

“So? Four years matters little to adults. When Trevon is twenty, Shay will be twenty-four. Not a big deal.”

“You want her to be alone for ten years? Raising two kids?” Levi said. “Jemma thinks this is God’s way of making a match.”

Judging from the snarl on Jordan’s lips, he did not agree with that theory. “How long have you known it was Omar, Levi?”

“I found out Wednesday night. I wanted to tell Shaylinn and Omar first thing Thursday before we moved, but then Bender wanted that meeting and there was no time to talk to Omar before you all left for the cabin.”

“Jemma told Shaylinn?”

“Yes.”

“So she didn’t tell me, either?” The anger faded from Jordan’s face, and he just looked tired. He slapped Levi’s chest. “Finish your meeting, Levi,” he spat, then walked back to the living room.

The men didn’t get much done after that. Jordan and Mason both sank into moody silence, and Zane, Levi, and Mason spent the next few hours answering Beshup’s questions about the Safe Lands.

When darkness finally settled over the city, they all piled into Zane’s fancy truck and drove back to the cabin. The women had dinner ready, so they gathered around the kitchen table to eat while Beshup shared his story about the attack on Jack’s Peak again for those who hadn’t heard it.

Levi couldn’t help but notice that Omar continually stayed on the opposite side of the room from Shaylinn and took three trips to the bathroom during dinner.

While Omar was still in the bathroom on his third trip, Mason leaned over to Levi and whispered, “He needs to run away and paint. It’s how he deals with things.”

But there was no painting left here. Omar had already done all the windows. “It won’t be much longer.” Levi picked up his butter knife and tapped it against his water glass. “If everyone will quiet down, we’ll get started.”

All heads turned toward him. He stood at the head of the table, nervous for some reason. Because of Beshup and Zane? Maybe. He met Jemma’s adoring smile and the fear melted away.

“I’d like to open this meeting with a prayer.” Levi had never prayed publicly before, and he wasn’t thrilled to start doing so now. But he agreed with Jemma’s concerns that their people needed consistency during this traumatic time, so in an attempt to be more like Papa Eli he recited the prayer Jemma had helped him write based on Psalm 13. “Father in heaven, you didn’t promise us peace. Look on us and answer, Lord. How long will you forget us? We wrestle with sorrow. Day after day we weep as our enemy triumphs over us. But we trust in your unfailing love. In the hope of your salvation. Bring us victory, Lord. Set the captives free. Amen.”

“That was lovely, Levi,” Aunt Chipeta said.

“Lovely words don’t bring my husband, Mark, back,” Eliza said. “They don’t bring my children back to me. Why did this happen? We follow God. Yet it seems like he’s punishing us.”

“Where in the Bible does it say God’s people will be safe from
violence?” Mason asked Eliza. “Where does it say his people will always be rescued here on earth?”

“It’s unfair,” Eliza said, tears filling her eyes. “And what if this is just the beginning? What if we’re stuck here forever? What will become of my babies? Will they remember me? What I taught them? Or will they become like him?” She gestured to Zane.

“What did I do?” Zane said.

“Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he won’t turn from it, Eliza,” Aunt Chipeta said, handing Eliza a napkin. “Trust that to be true.”

“I know it’s taking us longer to get to the children than we hoped,” Levi said, eager to change the subject. “Mason, how about you give the ladies your update?”

“I saw Penelope when the students walked to the park. She passed me a note, which told of two ways she thought the kids could sneak out of the school.”

“How was she?” Aunt Chipeta asked of her daughter.

Levi removed Penelope’s letter from his pocket and handed it to his aunt.

“Bright and smiling. Tenacious as ever,” Mason said. “I also hope to get some information about the boarding school from Ciddah.”

Aunt Chipeta narrowed her eyes. “I thought you didn’t trust her.”

“I … don’t.” Mason stretched the neckline of his shirt as if it were too tight. “But I’m trying to know her better, and questions about one’s childhood are relevant in courtship, are they not?”

Eliza snickered, her cheeks still wet with tears.

Aunt Chipeta gave her a one-armed hug. “See, Eliza, you can trust God to always use Mason to provide comic relief.”

Mason’s eyebrows sank as he looked at the women. “I don’t see what made my question humorous.”

“Once we determine which route is safest,” Levi said, “we’ll plan the escape and get word to Penny. We’re hoping to do it two weeks from today.”

“Two more weeks,” Mary murmured.

“What about the nursery?” Eliza asked.

“The nursery is another matter,” Mason said. “We need to enter at night as well, and we need to knock out the cameras.”

“I can do the cameras,” Zane said. “But I’ve never been in there, so I don’t know where to send you.”

“It would be best to do both escapes on the same night,” Levi said. “Otherwise we tip off enforcers that we’re after the children, and they’ll tighten security more than ever on the other location.”

Someone knocked on the front door.

All eyes focused on the entrance, Levi’s included. Heat flashed over him. Who else knew they were here? He glanced at Zane, who shrugged one shoulder.

Levi pushed back his chair as silently as he could, but Shaylinn hopped up from her seat and jogged to the door.

“I’ll get it,” she sang. “It’s probably Kendall.”

Levi and Jordan exchanged shocked glances. Both jumped to follow her.

“Shaylinn, stop,” Jordan growled.

But Shaylinn glanced through the peephole and pulled open the door. “Yep, it’s her.”

Indeed, Kendall Collin stood alone on the porch, gaze bouncing from one person to the next in the crowd of people staring at her.

Shaylinn had invited someone here? When? And what had she been thinking?

Kendall stepped inside and Shay shut the door behind her. “I’ve recruited my first rebel,” she said, smiling.

“Can I talk to you, please?” Levi grabbed Shay’s arm, towed her into the living room, and pulled her to sit beside him on the sofa. Jordan and Jemma followed.

Before putting his attention on Shaylinn, Levi watched Omar in the kitchen. He pulled out a chair for Kendall, who was smiling at his little brother like they were about to climb the kissing trees.

Wonderful. Just what Omar needed after news of Shaylinn: another female distraction.

“Why, Shay?” Jemma said, pulling Levi’s attention back to the problem.

“We weren’t supposed to tell anyone about this place,” he said.