THIRTY-ONE
IT’S QUIET, BUT ONLY FOR a second.
Fallyn throws her hands up first, and Elijah moans in defeat. The others begin talking frantically among themselves, wondering how Frank has confirmed our location, worrying about the threat of the virus. Xavier stands there helplessly, eyeing the group for some plan of action, until finally Ryder raises a hand and the room falls silent.
“You have more details, I assume?” he asks. His voice is still calm and steady, but his hands twist in small knots before him.
“They engineered it in the labs. The prisoner said it’s airborne. It’s apparently a mutated version of the original virus AmWest dropped on the East back during the war. Once we’ve been exposed, people will be sick within a day or two. He said we’d all be dead in a matter of weeks.”
Fallyn frowns. “How can they be sure they won’t infect themselves?”
“Vaccines,” Xavier explains. “It’s been mandatory for all serving in the Order and anyone wanting to stay within city limits. And it’s being supplied to all Taem’s domed sister cities across AmEast as well.”
“And outlying towns?” Ryder prompts.
“I don’t think Frank cares much. He doesn’t need everyone to survive, just himself, the Order, and Harvey. Luke thinks the release of the virus depends on the success of this approaching Order team. Their mission is still Harvey, so they can’t release it before they are in a position to retrieve him, otherwise they’ll be risking the health of their target.”
“Wait a minute,” my father interjects. “How do they even know where we are? Sure, Mount Martyr’s a well-known landmark, but we’ve been careful about our activity during daylight hours. They shouldn’t know we are operating out of here, not unless . . . Do we have a leak?”
Raid shakes his head. “No one has been taken captive in recent weeks. I don’t think information was snitched. But we need a plan, and we need it fast.”
“Frank might have his suspicions about our location,” Ryder says calmly, “but I doubt he truly knows where we are. If he did, a virus would not be necessary. He’d simply fly over and drop bombs.
“So this can mean only one thing: The virus is coming on foot. I believe the Order will look to capture one of our soldiers in the field. Since they don’t know how to find us, they will simply infect that prisoner and let him wander home. They’ll want us to infect ourselves.”
Ryder’s logic makes perfect sense, and it sends another wave of panic through the room. I look at Bree, but her face is stern, her eyes focused.
“So we need the vaccine,” she says to the worried captains.
Ryder nods in agreement. “Yes. The vaccine is the fail-safe. We barricade our entrances, tighten security, and we do all we can to keep the virus from ever finding us. But if it does, we need the vaccine as a backup.”
“Hold on,” Fallyn says. “We’re really going on the words of this one prisoner?”
“Fallyn, if you could see what Luke’s done to him, you’d believe him,” Xavier says. “He only wants the pain to stop. And you know how Luke is, the kind of agony he can inflict.”
Elijah sighs. “It’s a lost cause. The spies we have in Taem didn’t see this coming, and if they are out of the loop, there’s no way they can get us the vaccine in time. They probably don’t even know where to start looking.”
“I do,” Harvey chimes in. It’s the first words he’s spoken since the meeting began.
“Out of the question,” Ryder states. “They want you too badly.”
“Clearly not badly enough to keep me alive,” he counters. “They are risking my death by sending a virus our way. I can die here with you, or we can attempt to get our hands on this fail-safe.”
Ryder rubs his thumb and forefinger together. “You know where to look?”
“I spent countless days in both the technology wing and medical research center when I worked there. If the virus was born in those labs, so was the vaccine.”
“There’s no way they’ll let you waltz back in,” Elijah says.
And then I see it, a path forming before my eyes. This is my chance, the opportunity I’ve been praying for.
“They’ll let us waltz in if I bring him back,” I say. Everyone turns to stare. “It’s simple. I march Harvey back to Taem, turn him in, and create a diversion allowing us to grab the vaccine. Then we sneak back to the woods before the Order even realizes what’s happened.”
And I grab Emma along the way, I think to myself. Exactly how, I am not sure, but at the moment, those details aren’t slowing me.
Fallyn chortles. “Anyone can create a diversion. Why would you walking Harvey in be any more believable than someone else? What could you possibly tell them that would prevent them from shooting you both on sight?”
“First of all, the goal of Operation Ferret was always to bring Harvey back alive, so no one will be shot on sight. And then there’s the fact that I’m a twin.”
“Why would that matter?” she sneers.
“Because I won’t be returning as myself. I’ll be returning as Blaine. We are identical, and in the Order’s eyes, Blaine never turned on them as I did. I can tell them I’ve been held captive since the Rebels attacked Evan’s mission team. I’ll say that you guys cut out my tracking device so I couldn’t be traced, that I pretended to change sides. I’ll say I gained your trust and then, when the opportunity presented itself, I took Harvey hostage and returned to Taem. If I tell them that story, I will be welcomed back with open arms. It will certainly get us back into Union Central, and from there, we can get the vaccine.”
Harvey smiles, but the rest of the room is uncommonly still.
“It might work,” Ryder admits finally. “It could go wrong a million different ways, but it’s the best chance we have. Harvey, you’re okay with this?”
“More than okay.”
“Well I’m not,” my father interrupts. “Gray’s not prepared for something of this magnitude.” I can see the terror in his eyes. For once he looks like a father.
“He’s proven himself ready,” Ryder says. “And he is on the active list. Gray, are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yes, but we’ll need a guide. Neither Harvey or I know the forest well beyond Mount Martyr.”
“I volunteer,” my father says.
Ryder shakes his head. “Absolutely not. It can’t be any of the captains. You are all too recognizable. It needs to be someone senior and yet someone who is not on their radar, someone who has proven themselves several times over and will not crack under pressure.” I think Ryder is calling for a volunteer, but I find his eyes already locked on the blond figure to my left.
“I accept,” Bree says, no waver or worry in her voice.
“Excellent,” Ryder says. “The scouting mission is off. We have bigger missions to plan.”
We spend the next several days in the status room with forest maps and city grids spread before us. We go over various routes and infiltration plans: how to break into the research facility, when to execute the diversion, how to make our escape. My father avoids the planning altogether, cursing under his breath and swearing he wants no part in coordinating his own son’s death. Blaine seems to share his sentiments.
There is a day where Harvey and Bree are called to planning alone and I am not needed. They talk with the captains behind closed doors and I spend my time wondering what plans must be kept from me, and why. Bree tells me later it was nothing—housekeeping items that applied to technology and transportation only—but I suspect she’s lying. She looks tired, though, taxed from the day, and I don’t press her. Instead, I rifle through various scenarios of how and when I can sneak to the prison and pull Emma from her jail cell. If they can keep details from me, I can keep details from them.
The night before our departure, we pack our bags and go undercover. The Rebels dye Bree’s hair dark brown and put thin disks in her eyes, which turn their depths the color of wet dirt. They call the disks “contacts” and give me similar ones, so that my eyes, the one feature different from Blaine’s, appear blue.
I am laying my old Order uniform out across my cot when Bree stops by.
“You ready?” she asks.
“Yes. Are you?”
“Of course.” She looks like a different person, but her voice is the same, and the way her brow ruffles in annoyance, unmistakable.
“You can still back out if you want,” I tell her. “I won’t take offense.”
“No way, Gray. Someone has to make sure you come home in one piece.” She stares at me for a moment, like she’s expecting me to claim I don’t need her help. “I’ll see you in the morning, then,” she says, and is gone as abruptly as she arrived.
I finish packing and sit at the end of my cot. I try to think about something, anything. Perhaps there is too much looming in the near future, so much that I am incapable of thinking of anything concrete. In need of a distraction, I head to the hospital to see Blaine.
He is hard at work in a physical therapy session with a nurse, and hops down from the steps she has him climbing when I arrive.
“Look at you, running stairs,” I say.
He grins. “Getting stronger by the day. I just might have my full strength back when you return.”
“You’re dreaming.”
He winds up for what I expect to be a playful punch, but ends up grabbing me instead.
“Be careful,” he says. “Twin or not, you’re still my kid brother and you don’t know what it would do to me if something bad happened to you.”
“Actually, I do know because I already went through it with you. When you were Heisted. When you were shot. When you slept in this hospital for days on end.”
We break from our hug and he laughs. “Okay, okay. You win. I’ve put you through hell. Please don’t try to make things even.”
I leave Blaine to his therapy and head back to my room. I want to go to bed early so that I am well rested in the morning, but my father is waiting for me. He leans against my dresser, arms crossed.
“I want you to know I am proud of you,” he says simply. “And I’m sorry I haven’t been very supportive these last few days. I just don’t want to lose you again.”
I nod. I never thought his avoiding me was a malicious act. It was his way of dealing, of coming to terms with the uncertain future that steadily approaches.
“Trust your gut out there,” he says. “It’s kept you alive so far.”
“I will.” I almost call him Pa, but he says good night and leaves the room before I can work up the courage.
That night I sleep poorly. In my dreams, I am trying to get Harvey to Taem, but he keeps morphing into a black crow and flying in the opposite direction. Eventually I shoot him from the sky. When he hits the ground, he is no longer a crow but Bree, naked, her newly dark hair matted and bloody behind her head. I carry her in my arms, wandering aimlessly until she bleeds dry.
When I wake, it is still early, but my body is too anxious. I climb from the cot, pull on my Order uniform, and wait for it to begin.