Outcasts (46 page)

Mason slipped into the house after Otley. The foyer was wide and square, floored and trimmed in dark wood. It had walls painted cream. Long red, navy blue, and cream-patterned rugs covered much of the floor. A dark wood staircase wrapped up the left-hand side of the foyer, carpeted in the same colorful rug. The ceilings were higher than what Mason knew to be normal. Fancy iron furniture and tables lined each wall amid vases and statues. Directly in front of Mason stood a life-size bronze-and-iron statue of a woman and three large dogs, each on its own leash. Where the railing curved at the foot of the stairs, a vase filled with fresh, long-stemmed roses stretched as tall as Mason.

Once all the enforcers had entered the house, Mr. Berg closed the
front door and crossed the foyer to an open walkway at the bottom of the stairs. “Right this way.”

Otley stomped after the butler, his boots clumping over the shiny wood floor and thin rugs. Mason followed closely and carefully, making sure to keep his distance from everyone else. Would Ciddah be with Lawten? Or would she be somewhere else? At this hour she’d likely be sleeping. Where might the bedrooms be in such a house?

The “small parlor” was as big as Mason’s old house had been. The walls were also cream, which made the room look bright. There were eight sofas — four cream and four red — and at least a dozen wing chairs, all arranged to face the middle of the room. Tables and lamps and mirrors and vases and pillows … the place was cluttered yet looked immaculate. A brown piano as big as a car sat in one corner of the room. A fire in a marble hearth crackled on the opposite wall. Two archways led out the back of the room, one on either side of the fireplace. To the bedrooms, perhaps?

Otley walked up to a mirror hanging above the fireplace. He bared his teeth and picked them with his thumbnail. The men in black suits filed inside the room, followed by Bender and the three enforcers. They stood in a line behind one of the red sofas.

Lawten’s assistant, Kruse, entered then, still pink-skinned and bald, and still wearing the same black SimArt hand on the side of his head. He led the way for his boss, who was frail and hobbling like an old man. Mason had never seen the task director general walking, and now he saw why. No one should move so slowly at thirty-nine years old. Why was his condition so accelerated? Ciddah had said she’d loved him once. Did love go away like a stomachache? Mason didn’t think so. It must hurt to see someone you love waste away from illness. She couldn’t really be his lifer, right? He’d betrayed her.

The head of Lawten’s security carried the warrant to Kruse, who started to read it.

“General Otley,” Lawten said, “what right have you to barge into my home at this hour?”

Otley turned away from the mirror and stood with his hands
behind his back. “I have a warrant for your arrest and to search your house.”

Lawten lowered himself onto one of the red chairs. “And what am I being arrested for?”

Kruse stepped up behind the couch, just to Lawten’s right. “Kidnapping and conspiracy against the Safe Lands, according to this.” He handed it to Lawten, who waved it away.

Lawten crossed one leg over the other. “Preposterous. Who have I supposedly kidnapped?”

“Baby Promise,” Otley said.

Mason edged toward the far wall and peeked out the doors there. A formal dining room. Perhaps the bedrooms were upstairs.

“Baby Promise is here as part of an experiment, General Otley,” Kruse said. “I can produce the paperwork if necessary.”

“And now that we’ve cleared that up, what conspiracy do you accuse me of?” Lawten asked.

Mason started back toward the door he’d come in, intent on reaching the stairs.

“We have reason to believe you helped several outsider women escape the harem,” Otley said. “That you bring them here to receive medical check-ups from Ciddah Rourke.”

“Miss Rourke is my lifer,” Lawten said. “And I’ve never brought any harem women to my home.”

Even though he’d been prepared for it, the statement shook Mason. And Otley’s accusation of medical check-ups compounded the doubt in his mind. He reminded himself that Otley was trying to frame Lawten. The Glenrock women had never come here for check-ups. So Ciddah was here for a different reason, but what?

“We’ll see, Mr. Task Director,” Otley said. “My enforcers are going to search your home.”

Lawten narrowed his eyes at Otley. “And who will your men find, General Otley?”

“How could I know?” Otley said, innocently.

“Oh, I think you know. This isn’t the first time you’ve tried to set
me up. All of the dead in Glenrock. I know you ordered your men to kill.”

“The outsiders were armed. I warned you it might be necessary.”

“But you fired first. And it made me look bad. That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? To make me look incompetent?”

“You’ve served the Safe Lands well for many years, Mr. Task Director. Because of that, I’m willing to negotiate.”

“I’m listening,” Lawten said in a low voice.

“Resign as task director general, and I’ll dismiss the charges. No X. No record.”

“No task?” Kruse said.

“Oh, he’ll task,” Otley said, “just not as the TDG. And not in the Highlands. Or the Midlands.”

Mason had heard enough. It wouldn’t be long before the remaining enforcers were let inside to do their search. He slipped out of the parlor and went up the stairs.

W
hen Ruston returned from helping Mason and Omar, he and Levi and Beshup went over the list of Glenrock and Jack’s Peak families until Ruston had found a basement location for each to move into. Then Levi sat beside Zane and watched on the video screens as Mason and Omar walked through the gates surrounding Champion House, invisible to the enforcers they were walking beside. So strange.

“I can’t believe I’m seeing this,” Zane said. “I mean, I knew Bender and Rewl were doing their own thing, but seeing them walk beside Otley …”

Ruston, who was standing behind Zane, squeezed Zane’s shoulder. “I know, son.”

“But what are we going to do? Bender and Rewl, they know the basements as well as anyone.”

“We keep doing what we do and trust God will continue to protect us. He has from the beginning, you know.”

But Zane sighed heavily, like he didn’t like that plan. Levi wanted to ask Ruston what he meant by “God,” but his brothers were approaching the gate. Levi was thankful that Jemma and the others were already
on their way here. But if Ruston’s basements weren’t any safer than the cabin, what was the point?

“I wish we could hear what they’re saying,” Zane said. “I don’t know the cameras so well inside, so bear with me.” He switched the view on one of his six screens to a camera on the front porch, looking out at the approaching vehicles. No sign of his brothers, though on another one of Zane’s screens, Levi could see through Omar’s eyes as the second car branched off and Omar followed it.

Seeing his brothers walk into danger and having no ability to help them was strange. Levi didn’t like feeling so helpless. There was nothing to do but watch and pray.

He glanced at Ruston, who stood beside him, arms folded as he watched the screens. Could the two of them possibly be related? It seemed insane, but Levi hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it the entire time Ruston had been gone. “That was quite a statement you left me with,” Levi said.

Ruston grinned without removing his gaze from the monitors. “Got you thinking, did I?

Thinking you’re mad.
“I’d like to hear why you think we’re related.”

“Good,” Ruston said, “because I’m happy to explain.”

Zane groaned and turned on his chair. “He’s always telling it. The
Tale of the Outsiders
has been a legend to basement kids since before I was born.”

“Because my father told me stories of
the
Elias McShane,” Ruston said, “the smart young man who got away from the Safe Lands and took his family into the woods to live off berries and rabbits.”

Zane spun back to the monitors. “As if people would eat a rabbit.”

But the back of Levi’s neck prickled at what Ruston had said. “Elias McShane was my great-grandfather.”

Zane’s twisted his chair around again, eyes narrowed. “Hold the flavor.”

“Didn’t I say so, Dathan? Didn’t I?” Ruston broke out a wide smile and grabbed Zane’s shoulder. “The stories are true!”

“Dathan?” Levi asked.

“My real name,” Zane said. “We all have fake ones to use above ground. I was born Dathan McShane.”

“And I’m Seth McShane,” Ruston said, “named after my — ”

“Papa Eli’s father?” This was too weird. McShanes in the Safe Lands? How?

“You called Elias McShane ‘Papa Eli’?” Ruston asked, as if the mere idea was ridiculous.

But Levi wasn’t jumping ahead to that until he got more answers. “How can you be related to Papa Eli’s father?” No one from Glenrock had ever moved into the Safe Lands. Papa Eli would have said, wouldn’t he?

“First, let me show you this.” Ruston went to the ammo shelves and pulled a rifle down from the very top.

Levi’s heart fluttered at the familiar weapon. “That’s my gun! How did you get it?”

“Dathan told me about it after he went with you to shoot out those transformers. He said it looked a lot like mine and that you claimed it came from Arizona.”

“For the record, I thought it was merely interesting,” Zane said. “I did not believe my dad’s crazy stories were true.”

Ruston pulled down a second rifle from the top shelf. “This is my gun. It belonged to
my
great-grandfather, Seth McShane.” He handed the rifle to Levi.

It didn’t have the engraving Levi’s had, but they were almost identical.

“I’ve got a guy loyal to me in the enforcer’s evidence warehouse,” Ruston said. “And after you got thrown in the RC, I had my guy steal the gun. When I saw the engraving, I knew.”

Levi turned his rifle over, baring the engraving on the bottom of the stock. But he knew what it said:
Elias McShane — March 22
,
1996.
“It’s Papa Eli’s birth date.”

“That’s right. And when Dathan told me so many of you were nines, I pieced things together. See, our family are all nines too.”

Levi looked at Zane, but he wasn’t wearing his gloves right now. “But Zane, er, Dathan … He’s a five.” Levi hadn’t forgotten that.

“It’s fake,” Zane said. “I can program SimTags to bear any number. Nines get too much attention from Safe Lands medics, so we always use lower numbers. I’ve got Mason’s eyes on the screen now, by the way. Lhogan switched suit two to the main feed. I wish he’d give me access to his GlassTop so I could see all his screens.”

Levi looked at the second screen. Mason was standing in a fancy room with General Otley, Bender, Lawten Renzor, and Renzor’s weird assistant. “No sound?”

“Nope. All we can do is watch,” Zane said. “Unless Omar taps us.”

“What do you know about Seth McShane?” Ruston asked.

“Uh …” Jemma would know the story better. “Papa Eli’s father sacrificed himself so that Papa Eli and his friends could get out of the Safe Lands. He distracted the guards and got arrested and put in jail. Papa Eli said they’d never have gotten out otherwise. As far as we know, no one else ever got out.”

“So Seth McShane is a legend to your people, and Elias McShane is a legend to mine.” Ruston smiled. “Isn’t that something?”

Bewildering
was a better word. Levi didn’t think it had ever occurred to Papa Eli that his father might start a new family in the Safe Lands. “Papa Eli always made his father look like a, uh …” What was the name of those men of Old who didn’t marry? “A missionary priest?”

That seemed to tickle Ruston, and he hooted in laughter. “Once those gates closed him in, Seth McShane had seven more children.”

“Seven!” Levi couldn’t believe it. “Papa Eli only had four, and he was a lot younger.”

“I still can’t believe Elias McShane was a real person,” Zane said. “All this time I thought it was just a story.”

Levi had greatly respected and admired his great-grandfather, but it was weird to hear people talk about Papa Eli like he was some kind of legend. “Otley shot him,” Levi said. “In the raid. But he died later when I found him.” Died right in front of him.

Ruston’s eyes bulged. “He was still alive? After all this time?” He walked across the nest and sat on the chair in front of the green wall. “How?”

“He was ninety-two,” Levi said, smiling, “and he could still keep up with me on hunting trips.”

“Ninety-two? That’s stimming ancient,” Zane said.

Ruston just stared at Levi, his expression awestruck. “I can’t believe you knew him.”

“Lived in the same house as him,” Levi said. “You must have old people in the basements, right?”

“Old people, yeah,” Zane said, “but none that old.”

“We don’t have great access to medical care,” Ruston said. “If our elderly get sick, we can’t take them to the MC.”

“Because they’d be liberated,” Levi said. This place was nuts. “Do you have the thin plague?” Levi asked Ruston.

“Not me. Some Naturals do, most don’t.”

“I’m a flaker, Levi,” Zane said. “Go ahead and hate me.”

“I don’t hate you.” But Levi doubted that was enough to convince Zane, whose words brought a rush of shame over Levi. No one had helped him more than Zane. “Liberation,” he said, thinking of his mother. “What is it?”

“Ah, that I can’t tell you,” Ruston said. “We’ve tried to figure it out for years. And we have some men in very high positions within the Safe Lands government too. But the Guild is very careful with the truth about liberation.”

“Could it be death?” Because that’s the only thing that made sense to Levi.

“Could be,” Ruston said. “Killing Xed people would be one thing, but I can’t imagine it would help the Guild’s cause to kill the innocent.”

“We have to find out what it is,” Levi said. “There’s got to be a way.”

“Then we need to take down the government,” Ruston said.

“Operation Lynchpin,” Zane said.

“What’s that?” Levi asked.

“Omar’s idea for taking down the government,” Zane said. “He
thinks we need to do something that will cut off the food or water supply to the people, which would force everyone to leave the Safe Lands. And it
could
work, but enforcers have a lot of supplies stocked up. And they can always take flights to Wyoming to get more.”