Viral Nation (39 page)

Phire, Emmy, and Marta sat on the long bench seat behind them that Clover and West had gone back for the night before. West had wanted them to stay behind today but lost that battle.

“You okay?” Christopher asked from the passenger seat.

She shrugged without looking away from the road. “I guess so.”

“You’ll see him again, you know.”

“Of course I will. He’ll be at the Dinosaur.” Christopher didn’t say anything until Clover looked at him. “What? He promised me.”

“I was talking about your brother.”

Clover put her eyes back on the road and tried to ignore the hot flush that crept up her neck and over her cheeks.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” West said from behind her. “You could stay.”

She’d thought of little else since announcing she was going to try to get back into the Academy. If Kingston’s answer was no, she wasn’t sure what she’d do. She’d be trapped in the city, at least for a while. Bennett would probably take her back to the Company. He’d gone to a lot of trouble to get her in there in the first place.

Having someone inside the Company would be good for the Freaks. It had crossed her mind to get in the gate, away from where West could make decisions for her, and then get herself back to work. But the risk was so high. Bennett could just leave her on the other side. After a while no one would care what had happened to her except Jude and her brother and the other Freaks.

No. Kingston would take her back. She’d make it happen somehow. It would mean telling the whole city that her brother forced her to leave. When she and Bridget were done with him, West would never be able to return to the city. His bridges would be so burned, there would be no rebuilding them.

And no backing out of their course of action. No slipping back into the comfortable patterns of the life she’d lived until three weeks ago.

“I have to do this,” she said. “I want to.”

Clover slowed as she neared the gate and parked the van around a curve so the guards wouldn’t see them coming, far enough back that their engine didn’t give them away. They’d have to walk in and hope that Isaiah was already on duty. If he wasn’t, they’d wait. He had to be there for their plan to work.

Everyone got out of the van and moved into the woods. West wrapped Clover in a tight hug, and even though she stiffened at first, the sudden closeness taking her breath, she didn’t fight it. After a while she hugged him back, and her cheeks were wet with tears when he let her go.

“I love you,” he said. “Please, be careful.”

“I will.”

“Say it.”

“I’ll be careful. I promise.”

“Two o’clock,” he said. “Every Saturday. If I log into that computer and you don’t show up—”

“I love you, too.”

Everyone else hugged her and Bridget. Emmy cried a little and wrapped her arms around Mango’s neck, but Phire hushed her.

Clover’s heart beat in her throat. What if Jude had been caught sneaking in on the train? What if he’d already been arrested? He’d be executed for possibly introducing the virus back into the city.

Her father would probably be on the firing squad.

And if he’d been caught, and forced to talk, she and Bridget could be walking into an ambush.

“Breathe, Clover,” West said.

Clover hugged him again, hard and quick, then went to stand with Bridget on the road. Bridget took her hand, and they walked together down the middle of the road, with Mango on his lead.

Clover forced herself not to look back. It took only a few minutes for them to come around the corner and see Isaiah sitting in a chair outside the gate.

“Clover?” Isaiah stood. “Christ, Clover. Are you okay? Where’s West?”

Clover didn’t give herself time to chicken out before she said what she had to say. “West is dead.”

Isaiah froze. And then he drew in a hard breath and let it out slow. “Oh, God. Oh, Clover, I’m sorry.”

He seemed to want to hug her, but he didn’t. He’d known her all her life, after all. He looked to Clover like someone had stuck a pin in him and deflated him.

“Where did you come from?” the other guard asked. He was older than Isaiah. Maybe thirty. They’d sent in someone with more experience, then, after the whole Waverly incident. His black hair was cut short and bristly, and his mouth was set in a hard line. “What the hell is this?”

Isaiah turned to him and said, “Don’t you recognize the headmaster’s daughter? The whole city is looking for these girls.”

Then the guard evidently did recognize Bridget. His eyes widened and his mouth softened. “We thought you were dead.”

“I’d like to see my father, please. Will you call him?”

The older guard turned to Isaiah like he expected his partner to fulfill Bridget’s request. Isaiah said, “Call this in, Greg.”

Greg looked annoyed at the younger man telling him what to do, but he turned and went to the guard station anyway, probably wanting the fame of being the one to report that, against all odds, the headmaster’s daughter had been found alive.

Isaiah looked at Clover again when they were alone. “West is really dead?”

Clover cleared her throat. “A bear wandered into our camp and West distracted it so we could get away. It attacked him.”

Isaiah’s mouth hung open. For a second, Clover was sure he’d call her on her lie. But then he said, “I’m so sorry, Clover.”

The other guard came back, walking as fast as he could without breaking into a run. He was afraid he’d miss something. “Adam Kingston is on his way.”

“Have them find James—”

Clover clutched Isaiah’s arm and cut him off. Panic burst in her chest and it was all she could do to keep from screaming. In all their preparation, neither West nor Clover had thought of their own father.

She suddenly wanted him, more than she could have imagined she ever would again. More than she had in years. But if he came, she’d never get away. And she needed to find Jude.

“No,” she said.

“You can’t stay alone, you know.”

“I’ll find him,” she said. Isaiah knew too much about her family. He was part of her family. “Please. I’ll find him on my own. Tomorrow. I’ll stay with your grandma tonight. I’m just not ready to see him yet.”

“Kingston’s on his way,” Greg said again. “Who else you want?”

“No one,” Isaiah said. “Never mind.”

“Thank you,” Clover whispered.

“Okay, we’ll talk about this later. You go to my grandmother’s in the meantime, you hear me?” After Clover nodded, Isaiah said to Bridget, “Your dad will be here soon.”

It took less than five minutes for a small white car to come careening toward the gate so fast that for a second, Clover was afraid it wouldn’t be able to stop. She backed up and almost tripped over Mango.

Adam Kingston threw open the driver’s-side door with its gold Academy logo, and pulled himself out. “Bridget?”

Bridget stayed near Clover. “I’m here, Dad.”

Kingston seemed younger than he had at the Academy, in that way that old people can revert to looking like children when they are confused. His face was blotched, like he’d been crying. He had lost weight, so his clothes, usually perfectly tailored, hung on him.

He didn’t have any of the air of authority Clover associated with him.

“Bridget.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. “Are you hurt? Did that boy hurt you?”

Bridget hugged him back. “I’m fine. No one hurt me.”

The car’s other door opened, and Langston Bennett stepped out of the passenger side.

“Your daughter is safe, Adam. What a relief.” Bennett turned his attention to Clover. “And our wayward little Messenger is as well.”

Bridget didn’t look at Bennett. “I just want to go home.”

“I bet you’d like to get home as well, Clover,” Bennett said. “Has your father been contacted?”

“How did you get away from him?” Kingston asked his daughter.

“Not now, Daddy, please. I’ll tell you everything later. Can’t we just go home?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Clover needs debriefing,” Bennett said. “You can drop us both at the barracks.”

“Surely that can wait until tomorrow. The girl looks ready to collapse. Let her go home.”

Something passed between the two men that Clover didn’t quite understand. Finally, Bennett said, “Is that what you want, Clover?”

“Yes, sir.” The plan was to let everyone think that West had forced her out of the city with him. She was terrified that she would reveal too much, say something wrong. The longer she could put off the questions, the better, as far as she was concerned.

All she wanted right now was to get away from these people, so she could find Jude and know that he made it back into the city safely.

“The city will rejoice that you girls are both home and safe,” Bennett said. “Tell us where West Donovan is. The guard will pick him up, justice will be served, and this whole incident will be behind us.”

Clover’s hands flapped at her sides like fish out of water. Mango pushed his head against her palm, and she exhaled the breath she’d been holding and drew in another.

“West is dead,” Bridget said, taking her other hand. “Her brother is dead. You’re hurting her.”

“I’m sure I didn’t mean to,” Bennett said. “I’m just so grateful you both got away safe. Clover, can I have a word with you before we leave. Maybe in the guard station?”

Bridget tightened her grip on Clover’s hand and said, “Daddy, really—”

“No,” Clover said. “It’s okay.”

She let go of Bridget and walked with Bennett to the guard station. It extended from the city wall, forming one side of the gate
opening, and had three glass walls. She’d be safe. Bennett opened the door and she went in.

“I know you missed your dose after your last mission, Clover,” he said as soon as the door was closed.

“My brother took me outside the city.” She hoped her shaking voice didn’t give away her nerves too much. She should have stopped there, but the words kept tumbling out. “He was killed by a bear.”

“You seem particularly well for someone who hasn’t had her suppressant for so long.”

Clover forced herself to inhale and willed her stomach to settle. “I guess I got lucky.”

“A dispatch flyer went out on your brother two days after you left the city. We thought Miss Kingston was dead. That would have been the first murder in nearly fifteen years. Can you imagine if we’d made an announcement like that to the city?”

“Well, the system is working just fine now, isn’t it? You would know if someone was still after her.”

“Your brother was a virus survivor, wasn’t he? That bear must have been a relief to him.”

There was nothing Clover could say to that, so they were at an impasse. Bennett stared down at her; the scars on his own cheeks glowed white in the dim light of the guard station.

“You’ll come back to the Company, now that you’re home and safe, Clover. Where you’re needed.”

“Why am I needed there? What’s so special about me?”

It was Bennett’s turn to change the subject. “Most people in your position would be grateful.”

Bennett turned his back to Clover and looked out the window that faced toward the forest where everyone was hiding, if they hadn’t already left. And then she was positively certain they hadn’t, because Marta came out of the trees about fifty feet away. She
stood there a minute, fully exposed, and then lifted an arm and pointed at Bennett. Clover heard Bennett’s breath catch when Marta turned her hand and flipped him the bird.

Marta was going to get herself killed. Where was West? Or Christopher?

Clover looked up at Bennett, expecting him to be on the verge of sounding some kind of alarm. Instead, he was as pale as—well, as a ghost. “Mr. Bennett?”

He looked over his shoulder at the others on the other side of the guard station. They couldn’t see Marta from where they were. “Who is that? Who came here with you?”

Clover looked back to the trees, but Marta was gone. “Who is who?”

“You saw her.”

West said Clover’s face was transparent, but she did her best to be convincing anyway. “I didn’t see—”

“A search was ordered for your brother,” Bennett said. His voice sounded tight enough to play like a guitar string. “A search outside the city. The first ever. Dr. Stead vetoed it as a waste of time and resources.”

Clover’s head felt full of bees, buzzing and stinging and making it difficult for her to stay focused and in control of herself. She forced herself to stop rocking from foot to foot, but could not still her hands at her sides. “My brother is dead.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“He was attacked by a bear.”

“Then his body should be easy to find. Especially with you and Bridget Kingston to lead us to it. Dr. Stead will be pleased to learn that there will be no loose ends in this matter.”

Bennett grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the guard station before she could react to his sudden, harsh touch. He didn’t speak again until they were back to the others.

“It was awful. The bear—” Bridget was saying. Telling their rehearsed story. She stopped when she saw Clover and Bennett. “Clover saved me. We ran and she brought me here.”

Kingston turned his attention to Clover. “Miss Donovan. I don’t know how to thank you.”

“I want to go to the Academy,” Clover said.

Kingston shot a look to Bennett, whose mouth was drawn in a bloodless line over his big teeth. “We’ve already talked about this, Miss Donovan.”

“If this girl passed the entrance exams, she deserves a place at the Academy,” Bennett said.

“But she’s already been assigned to the Mariner track,” Kingston said.

“Not anymore.”

“You’re sure?” After a few seconds of silence and a look exchanged between the two men, Kingston nodded. “Very well. I’ll look forward to seeing you at the Academy a week from Monday for the first day of classes.”

“And Mango.” At the last minute, she remembered something that seemed a lifetime away. “And I can’t live with Heather Sweeney.”

“Really, Miss Donovan—”

Bridget put a hand on Clover’s arm. “She can room with me.”

“Bridget,” Kingston said. “You can’t expect to return to the Academy. Not now.”

“I have to.” Bridget pulled away when he tried to put an arm around her. “I just need things to be normal again.”