I zip-tie his wrists tight enough for his hands to swell and stiffen. In a last-gasp effort, he attempts to wrench loose, but after two violent spasms, his limbs slacken and yield. He feels the fury of my strength. Understands that I am ironclad, and he is but bait in my grasp.
His body weightless, I drive him forward, my blade and his gun forcing his dragging feet into a march. Wheezing, floundering, frantic to suck in air, Halton coughs and gags strangled cries as we edge in tandem toward a clearing where I spot Ava’s lifeless body.
I hear the click of metal. My eyes focus on Agent Hayes, his weapon drawn and aimed at me. He shoots his eyes to my forehead, left shoulder, my right leg, and my stomach, searching for a clean shot. I stand unflinching behind the governor’s grandson. My human shield.
“Drop your gun!” I shout, my order as steady as my hand that holds the pistol to his charge’s head.
My voice jolts Ava awake. “Mira!” she howls, flailing and twisting against her restraints.
I keep my focus on Hayes. He moves three steps toward me, but I stand my ground as he locks his eyes with mine, sizing me up. Working out my vulnerabilities. He grins like he’s found one, and with cocksure composure, he points his gun at my sister’s chest.
“No!” I yell savagely. My blood surges, and my finger stiffens around the trigger. I dig the barrel deeper into Halton’s temple. “Tell him to drop his gun, or I swear I will blow your goddamn head off.”
Terror trembles down Halton’s spine. A hideous gurgle bubbles up from his throat, and his voice cracks as he pushes words past his damaged windpipe. “Drop it . . . That’s an order . . . Agent!”
The gun remains trained on Ava’s heart. Halton hears my trigger click.
“Drop . . . it!” he shrieks, the veins in his neck bulging. “Or I’ll have you shot!”
Reluctantly, the agent lowers his gun. His eyes throw daggers as he tosses it to the ground beside my foot.
“And your mouthpiece!”
He opens his mouth wide, rips out a tiny communication device, and flicks the mouthpiece into the weeds alongside the gun. Did he already send out a call?
Hurry.
I stomp hard on the device with my heel. Shove the firearm into the waistband of my pants.
“Put your hands behind your head and lie flat on your stomach!”
The agent fails to comply, so I ask him again with my pistol. He bends slowly, glaring all the way down, but his bulk finally hits the ground, and I sprint for my sister, dragging Halton with me.
“I thought they had you, Mira,” she whispers when I reach her. Immobilized, Halton watches, a captive audience, as I kneel before Ava, making certain she is whole. Ava’s eyes are puffy and dazed. I graze my finger over the angry dart wound below her ear, just above the star-shaped scar on her neck.
“How?” she asks me. I don’t need to answer. She really doesn’t care how. Just that I am here.
“Mira . . . Ava . . .” Halton tries to clear his throat. It sounds like a garbage disposal grinding up his voice box. “I can . . . help . . . you both,” he continues to croak. “Come with . . . me.”
He pushes closer, but I fix the barrel to his forehead, warning him not to move.
Hurry.
I cut the cable ties that bind Ava and hold out my arm to help her stand. “Can you run?”
Just as Ava grabs my hand, a flurry of motion snaps my head to where Agent Hayes was lying. Too late, I see a knife launch from his fingers. It spins like a razor-edged wheel, cutting at me through the air. I close my eyes—what a stupid thing to do—hoping it will be quick and clean. I hear a sickening thud. The cry of agony.
I open my eyes to find the six-inch stainless-steel blade sunk deep into Halton’s chest. His face slack with shock, he staggers, then drops limp to the ground. Before I can think or move, Hayes hurtles toward Ava, his bare fists swinging.
Instinctively, I lift the gun and fire.
Two explosive shots burst from my hand, releasing a deafening ring as a bullet finds my target. The agent lurches back. He collapses to the ground, legs sprawled, eyes empty. He doesn’t move again.
Ava releases the weapon from my grip, and I peer down at a white-faced Halton, uniform soaked in blood. He tries to raise his zip-tied arms.
“I . . . I . . .” His voice comes out in halting spurts as he struggles to speak. I can’t hear his last words. I can’t bring myself to listen.
“That knife was aimed for Halton,” Ava says in astonishment. “It wasn’t a mistake.”
She gazes down at Halton’s feeble fingers swatting at the blade’s handle, buried inches from his heart.
He’s trying to pull it out.
“His own agent. Roth’s man.”
Halton’s movements wane, and his eyes dim. The bleeding is so immense, it’s clear he won’t last much longer. I bend to cut the plastic tie that binds Halton’s wrists. There’s nothing more we can do for him.
“I . . . I . . .” Halton gurgles, choking on his words.
Sirens blast their familiar song. The piercing alarm is so loud, it feels like it lives inside me.
“We have to move,” Ava says, gathering our bags and shoving the gun inside her waistband.
Dust rises in the air from the town, only miles away. From the pocket of my jacket, I remove my mother’s flower. I place the crumpled black-eyed Susan beside the blade lodged just beneath his collarbone. Heavy-eyed, Halton looks at the flower, then up at me, a shadow of a smile on his colorless, cracked lips.
Ava spares him a final glance, and we flee into the forest.
I . . . I . . . Halton’s voice haunts me through the countless trees. Disappears when I glimpse my first jarring sight of the border wall. Despite myself, my mouth drops at the pure spectacle of it.
“The entrance is farther down—forty yards,” Ava tells me.
A drone hums overhead, hunting somewhere in the distance. The Guard must have found Halton’s body by now. Don’t think of what’s behind. There’s only forward.
By Ava’s side, I push past the tree line into the unsheltered clearing. My hood slides down my tangled hair, but I do not move to cover my face. I don’t have to hide anymore.
I crane my neck, trying to see how far the barrier stretches. It’s endless and dominating. A steel monster guarding an imaginary line. A made-up boundary we’re not supposed to pass.
Ava crouches next to the hole in the wall they said was impenetrable.
“It’s really true,” I breathe.
My sister looks to me, her arm extended, inviting me to freedom. “You first.”
I shove through the narrow crevice, Ava following close behind.
The other side. Canada.
The sun sets behind the trees. Brilliant rays of orange and red ignite everything around me, beckoning us.
Ava rushes to me and embraces me hard. Her fingers dig into my bones as if to check that I am real. Our bodies release a mountain of tension, and our fast breaths harmonize.
“The people know,” I say, searching Ava’s eyes. “They’re rising.”
She smiles. She somehow already knew. It’s written on her face. Beautifully clear.
“We made it, Ava,” I tell her.
She pulls her forehead to mine.
“We made it,” she tells me.
Together we turn to face the vast new country, our hands locked as one.
We run. Not because we have to. But to willfully embrace the unknown.
And to prove we’re still alive.
PART IV
THE COMMON
AVA
Forty miles past the wall.
After breaking through the Canadian forest and trekking all night across grassland, Mira and I survey a highway in the distance. Soft morning light illuminates the two-tiered structure, the top layer a series of interconnected parks and walkways, while the bottom bustles with autonomous cars. The four-lane road is designed with colorful trees and flowers flanking rows of streamlined buildings. The great suburban sprawl of Lethbridge, Alberta, lies beyond. Despite the congestion, the energy is calm. Almost peaceful.
Calgary and the Common are less than two hours away if we can get one of those cars.