“This is it,” the soldier announces, pulling to a stop by a vandalized road sign. “You’re about four miles east of Zone 398, Region 12. I can’t go any farther.”
Vi and I exchange a look before turning back to the darkness taunting us through the glass. I don’t read the same fear in her but then maybe I’ve hidden mine well too. Who knows what ghosts hide in the darkness?
“Remember, should you discover the location of Lance Corporal Novelli, you are to contact the number given to you and stand by for further instructions. Don’t do anything else. Do you understand?”
He can’t see my nod and mumbles in frustration. “Fucking waste of time. Hello? Are you listening to me?”
“Yes. We get it,” I hiss out loud this time. I hope my own irritation is well-documented by this asshole. It helps with my courage. “Let’s go,” I direct to Vi who follows my lead and pushes through her door.
The soldier hesitates another moment. Then he puts the jeep in gear and screeches away.
“Not much of a team player, is he?” Vi says.
“I doubt facilitating the escape of two civilians in the middle of the night was the reason he enlisted.”
I sense a sudden shift in Vi’s mood, and know exactly how she feels. The soldier, the journey, the weakening hum of a jeep were all distractions, a veil protecting our consciousness from the gravity of what we’ve agreed to do. Now, alone in the dark it’s time to accept our mission.
“You ready?” I ask to break the silence before it breaks us.
“Let’s do it.”
I start along the edge of the road. A blistering wind assaults our jackets as we walk. I clasp my hood and shift the weight of my survival pack. The stench of decay permeates the air. This must be an old battleground because the scent is bearable. New death is impossible to breathe.
We barely see our next steps, but we don’t dare to use the lights in our packs. We have to wait until we pass the intersection with Route 33 and can claim we’re refugees from Zone 63, Vi’s home. My own zone 489 has been occupied by the rebels since right after government troops moved through the neighborhood, so we can’t use that as a cover. It wouldn’t make sense to flee from one rebel Zone to another.
Vi spends our walk describing 63. It’s better for us to lie as little as possible in order to keep track of our story, so we stick with the truth that I’m originally from 489 but was visiting Vi in 63 when we were forced to flee. We’ve been looking for a place to settle ever since.
“How did you end up in 9B anyway?” I ask.
“I was visiting 405 when the soldiers came.”
“Wow. What about the rest of your family?”
She shrugs.
“Have you been to 492?” I try.
She hesitates. “A few times.”
I want to ask more but sense it’s not a safe topic. As much as I understand her character, I know very little about her past.
“We need to talk about the footage of Kaleb from the Free Forces,” she says, changing the subject. I like this one even less.
“Which video? The first one where they were torturing him, or the second where they were stitching him back up.”
I’m still trying to process the latest one. Emery showed us both communications right before we left. The first to refresh my memory and introduce Vi to the situation. The second to make sure we had every possible clue for our mission. I kind of wish she hadn’t. In some ways the rebels’ eerie gentleness in the latest video was more disturbing than their violence. I go numb at the memory of Kaleb’s expression as they treated his wounds, assuring the camera that they’d do a better job of keeping him stable this time. The implication was clear: There’s no benefit to torturing a dead man.
“Did you see the window?” Vi asks, drawing me back.
“The window?”
“In the first one. Behind Kaleb you could see a water tower.”
“Does that mean something to you?”
“If they truly are in Zone 492 they have to be in an industrialized sector. There are no water towers for residential use in 492.”
I’m grateful one of her secrets includes intimate knowledge of 492. “Why didn’t you mention it to Henry and Emery? That would have narrowed down the search considerably. Maybe they would have had enough to go on. There can’t be many industrialized sectors in 492 with a water tower.”
She quiets, and I grow uneasy. “You actually trust them? You actually think they don’t know that?”
My lungs empty in an anxious sigh. Frustration that after everything I’ve been through, I’m still as naïve as the day I entered 9B.
I feel her looking at me.
“You know, Andie. Deep down, you do.”
I bite my lip, soak my tongue in the iron tang of blood.
“You know,” she repeats. Not harsh, but firm because it’s time for me to wake the fuck up.
“Someone let the rebels have him. The leak is still there. It’s not Dennel,” I say, and Vi seems relieved. No one wants to be the strongest link on a mission.
“Well, if Dennel is one of them, he isn’t the one they’re looking for,” she says.
I stop as the ground becomes unsteady. Gravel shifts beneath my feet, and Vi grabs my arm.
“You okay?”
“Fine. You think the real leak was trying to get rid of Kaleb and pin it on Dennel at the same time?”
“I don’t know. But I do know that a prisoner doesn’t get marched out of a military prison without someone’s blessing. My money is on Emery.”
I consider her statement, replaying details of the last few weeks.
“In the footage, the masked rebel referred to her directly. I remember thinking it strange, like it was personal.”
“I noticed that too,” Vi says.
“So the videos weren’t ransom notes,” I conclude, and Vi huffs.
“Not unless they were the stupidest kidnappers of all time.”
“Then what were they?”
Vi shrugs. “Messages for the spy, maybe? Messages for someone, anyway.”
A memory thunders through my head, and I choke on my next breath. “Vi, Kaleb’s father was military royalty. Supposedly, his father is dead, but what if he’s not?”
Vi’s eyes turn on me in surprise, and I give her a moment with my revelation. “You think he might be the leak?”
I rack my brain for more memories I’m not sure are there. “I don’t have any reason to think that, except, why else would Kaleb hold out?”
Vi quiets, and I grow nervous at her silence. Finally, she clears her throat. “I think we both know Kaleb didn’t tell them everything.”
“I’m sure he didn’t, but—”
“If he knew more than he let on, maybe there’s a reason the footage seemed so personal, their violence. Maybe it’s not a coincidence Kaleb is caught up in all of this. He’s not a random victim.”
The footage. I remember sensing the same thing. This whole drama seemed off. I’ve always felt the secrets everywhere, that pieces were missing or shoved into the wrong spaces. Was Kaleb a specific target after all? Was his fate sealed by something outside of either of us? Is Emery the leak? But that doesn’t make sense. Why would her own people publicly call her out in the video?
Why… unless the video wasn’t a warning but a message like Vi had said.
Possible fact: Kaleb is being sacrificed for someone else’s treason.
My heart pounds again. I shake my head. No. No!
“Andie, what is it?”
I’m hesitant to burden her with my theory. It’s too absurd, but I don’t have a choice. Maybe she’ll be willing to accept the hard truth I can’t.
“He knows, Vi. I can’t explain it, but he understood what was happening to him. And he was protecting me from it.”
His loyalty seems to be to his principles above all else. That’s what made him a traitor. An enemy to everyone and no one.
“Okay, so why would the rebels take him as leverage?” Vi asks.
“Because he knows the real leak.”
The thought settles around us as we trudge through the waning night.
“His superiors were right to believe he learned more than he let on the first time he was taken,” Vi continues.
“So the rebels took Kaleb to protect the identity of their asset.”
“He wasn’t supposed to survive. When he did, their spy was in danger.” Vi stops. “And the message? If the rebels are trying to protect themselves, why shine a spotlight with the videos?”
It’s a good point. Thanks to all these non-facts, we now have opinions obstructing our path.
You make tough soldiers, Emery.
You don’t know who I am, what I am to them.
What are you, Kaleb? Why didn’t you just explain it to me when you had a chance? I hate you for protecting me!
My accusations turn from Kaleb back to Emery. Something else about that masked rebel’s taunt chilled my blood. The careful resolve on the Captain’s face as though she were being careful not to react.
“If the government forces know where he is, but don’t care, that means this entire mission, sending us out, is just a ploy to get rid of me too.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Because they knew I wouldn’t let Kaleb go.”
Vi grunts. “Well, they’re getting rid of both of us then. We’re probably not supposed to survive this.”
“If you suspected that, why did you agree to come with me?”
“Of course I’d go with you. I don’t belong in 9B either.”
“Are you a rebel too?” It’s the question in my head since the day we met.
“I’m no one. I have no interest in this war. But I care about Kaleb and like the idea of not being a prisoner of either side. When they signed me up for a ticket to freedom that involves helping one of the few decent people left in this shithole, of course I’m in.”