Relapse (Breakers Book 7) Page 24

  The squires goggled at her. She laughed again, this time with a frantic edge.

  "So we drag the bodies into the woods," Dan said. "Pretend this never happened."

  Cinder put her hands on her hips. "Okay, so what happens when the People of the Stars come to investigate and Winslowe learns their people went missing at the same time we were on our way to Fullerton?"

  "Do both," Raina said. "Move the bodies, and tell her the right story. Tell her that they recognized me and demanded to take me away. When you resisted, they grew violent. A fight broke out. After they were slain, you hid them in the woods, where San Diego could deny any involvement."

  Cinder took off her glasses and wiped them on the hem of her shirt. "So this only happened because they were being dicks who were endangering the future of our people. That works." She cupped her hands to her mouth. "Everyone! What happened here was an accident. It wasn't our fault, but we can't afford the consequences: war with the People of the Stars. For the good of the Kingdom of Better San Diego, I need you all to swear the truth will never be known. Swear it!"

  Cinder's eyes burned like her namesake. One by one, they gave their oath.

  With that finished, they cleaned up the scene, dragging the bodies deep into the woods and driving off the whitecoats' horses. There was some talk of looting the bodies, but Cinder overruled this—there could be nothing to connect them to the crime.

  Once the scene had been sanitized, she dispatched Dan back to the palace to inform Winslowe of what had happened. The rest of their party continued north along the highway. This time, Cinder sent two scouts ahead.

  There was little talk. That afternoon, they stopped to rest and snack. Raina drifted from the others. Henna joined her.

  "I'm sorry," Henna said once they were alone. "I was certain it was him."

  "I thought it was, too. But good came from it regardless. Some of the Sworn are dead, and more tinder has been laid for the coming bonfire between San Diego and the People of the Stars."

  Henna smiled toothily. "Then I'm glad to have erred."

  They pressed on, marching to the very tail of twilight to make up for the time lost cleaning up the massacre. By nightfall, they'd reached the turn where the highway bent north to penetrate Orange County. They found refuge in another house. Raina went into the yard to water the shrubs. On her way back through the yard, she bumped into Georgia.

  "I'm sorry," Raina said. "Was I supposed to ask you to chaperone me?"

  "It's not that," Georgia said. "I came to ask you something."

  "Then stop staring and ask."

  "When the men were passing by. The horse. I saw you."

  A tingle unfurled down Raina's spine. She prepared to reach for her sword. "Why didn't you tell Cinder?"

  Georgia tipped her head to the side. "Because you killed King Dashing."

  "And you respect that?"

  "He was a tyrant. A bully." A wave of anger rolled over her face. "The only reason he was king was because he got the men with the guns to agree. He did nothing to deserve it."

  "Sometimes I wonder if anyone who leads deserves it."

  "Things are different on Catalina, aren't they? You don't have slaves. People are free. They live there because they believe in what you're doing."

  Raina smiled wryly. "Oh yes, they're free. They're so free that they chose to cast me out." Her face grew somber. "I didn't kill Dashing to punish him for his crimes. But now that he is dead, I won't let his oppression become a legacy. There will be change."

  Georgia's teeth flashed in the moonlight. "No one will ever know about the horse—and I'll do whatever it takes to help you."

  * * *

  On the next day, they cut north, inland, arriving at the university by sunset. In the front plaza, shaggy palm trees stood sadly around the husks of a fountain and a pool that now held nothing but brown leaves. White buildings looked down on the grounds. They might once have been pretty, but their windows were smashed, giving them the look of a handsome man who smiles to reveal a mouth full of decay-blackened teeth.

  Henna led them past dusty labs to a basement full of chemicals and compounds. The most difficult part was wrestling the barrels up the stairwell. They stayed overnight, then rolled the wagon south, returning without incident to the cloistered hills hosting the palace.

  Cinder was all smiles. As they neared the main building, she punched Raina on the shoulder. "We've got this. If this works out, it'll flip the status quo on its ear."

  "Mauser will assist you in setting up the treatment," Raina said. "He was our overseer at Catalina and will know what to do."

  "Music to my ears." Cinder clapped her hands. "I'll go put him to work."

  "The canal that brings in your water. Does anyone live along it above you?"

  "Not allowed. We do have a couple hundred people downstream."

  Raina nodded. "Your plumbing. Where does it drain?"

  "Where plumbing goes. The sewer."

  "Have you checked the lines?"

  "We're not idiots. That was the first thing we did."

  "Check again."

  Cinder's eyebrows drew together. "I just told you—"

  "Water only knows one way: down. If no one lives above your spring, then you must make sure that you are not the ones poisoning those below you."

  Cinder looked dubious. A day and a half later, however, she brought the news to Raina, who brought it in turn to Mauser.

  "There was a leak in the pipe within the cornfields," Raina said. "It was no more than a dribble, but a dribble is all it takes."

  "I think that's the same slogan they used to convince soldiers to wear condoms." Mauser looked out at the fields and laughed. "How did they not notice their corn smelled like choleric diarrhea?"

  "Have you watched this place? Half the men spend their days getting drunk and their nights making use of the women. The others are too exasperated by this to care. It's a wonder they haven't been conquered years ago."

  "And these fine fellows are the ones you intend to use to reclaim San Pedro?"

  "Even wet clay becomes useful when it is put to the fire."

  "And the dumbest of ideas sound wise when you dress it in grand words."

  Raina crossed her arms. "Some of them are able to discipline themselves. Others are only lax because Dashing didn't know how—or care—to make them better. With the right leader, much will be different here."

  She remained on house arrest, but when she ventured from her room, accompanied by Georgia, she now drew more curious looks than glares. Cinder ordered the pipe patched and new treatment tanks established for both the palace and the citizens who lived downstream beyond the walls. Through general gossip, Raina learned Cinder and Winslowe had enacted stricter quarantines for the sick.

  Raina was allowed to see Bryson and Carl and Mia. Mauser had already informed them of the progress, and though they were all in limbo in a place whose leaders might yet decide to execute them, they seemed untroubled by the wait.

  Ten days after returning from the university, Cinder summoned Raina upstairs to her room. This had multiple bookshelves, most of which sported figurines of superheroes and video game characters.

  "We've only had one new case of sickness in the last week," Cinder said. "I'm already putting together a second team to make a run for more chemicals. It's early in the game, but I think we might have done it."

  "That is excellent," Raina said. "I am glad to have been of use."

  "It's not all roses and unicorns. That thing that happened with the guys with the white capes? Winslowe's not happy about it."

  "Does she suspect the truth?"

  "As far as I know, she's totally ignorant. But that's not the problem. She's seized it as proof that you're a liability: the longer you're here, harbored by us, the more likely the People of the Stars will be to decide we're an enemy."

  Raina kept her expression neutral. "But once you're in charge, it is your plan to oppose them with me."

  Cinder moved to the nearest
bookshelf and took down a figure of a man in a black cape and cowl. His ears rose as two small spikes.

  "Again, you're missing the point. She's using you as a wedge to split away my support. At this juncture, I don't see any road to the throne."

  "We fixed the water. Cured the sickness."

  "We're not shitting our brains out anymore, and that's wonderful, it truly is, but the fact remains you killed our king and continue to put us at odds with the meanest dudes around." Seeing Raina's face, her mouth became an O. She touched Raina's arm. "Hey, don't be sad! You've banked considerable karma. Your people no longer have anything to fear from us. And you and your friends can walk away with your lives."

  "That is not enough. We have to do whatever it requires to take control." Raina narrowed her eyes. "I didn't think you would give up your designs on the crown so easily."

  A fox-like smile stole across Cinder's face. "You're right. I just needed to know you're still in. Right now, you're the stick Winslowe's using to push me beneath the water. You want to stay? Then we have to get rid of her."

  19

  "Aliens have Sprite?" Tristan glanced across the sub as if expecting the Swimmers to burst in through the ceiling. "Where are they?"

  "I don't know!" Ness gestured to Sebastian, "Are they close? Sprite and the Swimmers?"

  "DON'T KNOW," Sebastian signed.

  "You said they were here. How can you know they're here if you don't know where they are?"

  The alien tipped his head in thought, then waggled his tentacles. "THEY ARE AT…" He slowed down, spelling the next words out letter by letter. "D-E-U-T-S-C-H-E-B-A-N-K"

  As Ness puzzled this out, an explosion gonged from above, muffled by the hull of the submarine. Ness flinched, bending at the knees.

  "We don't have time for this," Tristan said. "If we don't move, they'll fight their way inside. Or destroy the sub trying."

  Ness signed to Sebastian, "Let's go. We'll talk on the way."

  Sebastian whirled and scrambled away from the bloody galley. Ness ran after him. A second boom went off, fainter than the first. Sebastian skittered into the control room, tentacles flashing above the sense-pads. With a gorgeous hum, the sub came to life. The world swayed as it lurched forward.

  The displays showed a solid chunk of land beside them and a small bay ahead, dead-ending in more land. Ness told Sebastian to loop left toward the exit into the larger bay. As the sub gained speed, footsteps smacked down the hall. Tristan ducked out, gun in hand.

  She reentered alongside Sam. Sam said, "There was no obvious breach, but I thought I smelled smoke. Doubt we can submerge."

  "Well, why would we want to do that?" Ness said. "You mean like to hide from the violent thugs and their alien partners?"

  "Alien partners?" Sam glanced around the control room. "Where's Sprite?"

  "Kidnapped. By the aliens." To Sebastian, he signed, "The thing you said to me is not a word. Now where'd they take him?"

  Sebastian repeated, "D-E-U-T-S-C-H-E-B-A-N-K"

  Ness rubbed his eyes with his palms. "Let's try this another way. How do you know where they took him?"

  "WAIT"

  "Wait?" Ness signed. "For what?"

  "I AM DRIVING NESS. DO YOU WANT ME TO CRASH"

  "Just let me know when you're free to talk, okay?"

  "What are you two saying?" Tristan said out loud.

  Ness shook his head. "I think he knows where Sprite is, but he's not making any sense. He seems stressed."

  "He watched our friend get kidnapped, then hid in this ship all day thinking the three of us would never find him. I think I'd be a little stressed, too."

  Too confused and frustrated to continue the conversation, Ness grabbed a seat. The sub continued to accelerate. As soon as it leveled out, Sebastian jerked to his feet and grabbed Ness' shoulder. He brought him into the hall, trailed by both Tristan and Sam, and headed back up to the galley, which smelled like gunpowder and fresh copper. Ness stepped over a lolling arm. Sebastian pointed at the wall.

  There, scrawled in pen on the orange surface, were five words: "Deutsche Bank building help SWIMMERS"

  "Holy shit, guys," Ness said out loud. "Sprite's at the Deutsche Bank building. Either of you know where that is?"

  "Why would I know my way around Sydney?" Tristan said.

  "You used to be a fancy person, didn't you?"

  "A fancy person? Like I attended cotillions and had opinions on opera?"

  "Like your parents had money, and sent you to college, and maybe took you places like Australia?"

  "MUST GO BACK TO DRIVE SUB," Sebastian signed. "UNLESS YOU WANT TO PARK FOREVER ON A REEF"

  They paraded back to the control room. Tristan said, "We don't know Sydney. But Dr. Gohel does. He can show us the way."

  In the excitement, the doctor's familiarity with the city had completely slipped Ness' mind. He explained where they were to Sebastian, as well as where they'd arranged to rendezvous with the others. As they exited into the wider Pacific and hove toward yet another bay to the south, Sebastian explained what had happened while they'd been off chasing after the doctor.

  It wasn't much of a story. The boarders arrived while Sebastian was on the upper deck, poking around at the inside of the hull; with no sense of hearing, he hadn't even known they were inside until they'd captured Sprite.

  "I DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO," Sebastian gestured. "I COULD ATTACK AND TRY TO KILL THOSE WHO DO WRONG, BUT THEY WERE MANY AND I AM ONE"

  "It's not your fault those dicks attacked you," Ness said. "What then?"

  "I HID WHERE HUMANS ARE TOO STUPID TO LOOK. I COULD NOT SEE TO KNOW BUT THEY MUST MAKE SPRITE DRIVE TO HERE. MORE MEN CAME AND THEY SPOKE. THAT IS WHEN SPRITE WROTE OF DEUTSCHE BANK AND SWIMMERS"

  "We're sure these guys are working with Swimmers? Maybe that was just something they said to scare Sprite."

  "I THINK IT IS MORE. I SMELLED THE SWIMMER ON THEM" Sebastian moved to adjust the controls; on the screen, arms of land enclosed them on both sides, funneling them into the bay where they'd arranged to meet the others. This in hand, he turned to Ness, tentacles drooping toward his body like a plant that's had too much sun and too little water. "AND WHAT IF SPRITE IS DEAD"

  Ness lifted his hands, but he didn't know how to reply. He signed, "What if he is?"

  "THEN I HAVE FAILED FOR I DID NOT ACT"

  "Was there a good time to act?"

  "NOT THAT I SEE. BUT PERHAPS I CHOSE NOT TO SEE"

  "That doesn't sound like you to me," Ness gestured. "If there was no good time to act, then the right move was to not act. You didn't charge in like a crazy alien-person, and because of that, we're here with you and we've got our boat back. Maybe we'll get Sprite back and maybe we won't. But you put us in the best position to try."

  Sebastian stared at him, then clacked his little claws in laughter. "TOO BAD TRISTAN CAN'T HEAR YOU"

  "Huh?" Ness gestured. "How's that?"

  "BECAUSE YOU SPEAK LIKE A BEING IT IS FIT TO REPRODUCE WITH"

  He shot a glance at Tristan. She raised an eyebrow. "What? What's he saying?"

  "That we're close to the others," Ness said. "So let's lock and load."

  She eyed him, then checked her pistol. The submarine slowed, coming to a halt.

  "TOO SHALLOW," Sebastian signed. "BUT WE ARE CLOSE"

  "Great," Ness said out loud. "Sounds like it's time for another dip."

  He jogged up top, accompanied by Tristan. The sub was parked half a mile into the bay and a hundred yards from the nearest land, a jut of suburban housing abutted by forests. Ness scanned the vacant shore, feeling suddenly queasy. If the other three had run into trouble, or had simply decided "screw it, we're through with all these pirates and aliens," then they might be boned. Any delay getting to the Deutsche Bank could cost Sprite's life.

  Light winked from shore, repeating. Ness laughed and waved his arms. They had even found a dingy, which they rowed over to the sub, sparing Ness from another dive into the ocean.

  Lionel grinned.
"Wasn't sure we'd see you again."

  "This isn't all of us," Ness said. "Sprite's still missing."

  "Sorry to hear that. Any leads?"

  "A pretty good one. Dr. Gohel, do you know where the Deutsche Bank building is?"

  "Certainly," the doctor said. "It's a landmark. Right off the Coathanger."

  "The Coathanger?" Ness said.

  "The Bridge. Smack in the middle of downtown. You'd have to try to miss it."

  "That's where they've got our friend," Ness said. They were still on the top of the sub and the breeze ruffled his short hair. "We're headed there right now. Can you lead us there?"

  "I should think so," Gohel said. "But the area's occupied."

  "That's why we need you. Can't bring the sub in too close, and if we get attacked on the walk, it would sure help to have someone who knows their way around."

  Lionel's cheer dried up like a teasing rain. "Hang on there. We can't send Dr. Gohel into the city."

  "It's not like he'll be alone," Tristan said. "We won't let anything happen to him."

  "You can't guarantee that, can you? Something goes wrong, where does that leave me? My wife?"

  "We need him on the ground with us. Like Ness said, if we need to improvise, his knowledge could save our lives."

  "So have him draw you a map!"

  The two of them glared at each other. Tristan's hand tightened into a fist.

  Ness swore and moved between them. "Lionel, this is the last thing we got to do. Once we've got Sprite, we're out of here. We'll head straight to New Zealand. How's that for a deal?"

  "Not one we can make," Tristan said. "We've got Swimmers. Right here. Stamping them out is our life's work. We're running away from that now?"

  "Who says we're running?" Ness met her gaze, refusing to back down. "As soon as we've got these people to safety, we'll come back and burn out the nest. Can everyone live with that plan?"

  "Fair enough," Lionel said. "Though I'd think Dr. Gohel should have the final word."

  "I'm not much of a warrior." Gohel pinched the temple of his glasses and adjusted them up his nose. "But if you are willing to accept my limitations in that department, I will do what I can as your guide."