Picture of Jeremy Fairleigh on the side!

Chapter Forty-Two

Caleb

"Blow it to bits," I murmured, stepping back from Fairleigh's grin.

"Indeed," he agreed, nodding. "We have several hundred people laying explosives under every building, street, and monument in this entire city." He stepped away from me, looking absolutely serene. "You must understand who we're dealing with. These are Superiors. They are stronger than us, smarter than us, and sharper than us. If we were to try anything more...subtle, we'd be annihilated."

I stared back at him, unsmiling. "Don't you think blowing things up is a little bit extreme?"

"It may seem that way," Fairleigh admitted, shrugging, "but if we're going to cleanse this country of the Superiors, we need to use a force that's greater than theirs."

It took a moment for his words to sink it, and when they did, I felt a sudden urge to throw up my breakfast. "You're going to kill them all," I breathed. The man gave me a strange look.

"I'm afraid so. It's really our only choice."

"What about all the other people?" I demanded, horrified. "The guards, the reporters...the candidates, even—are you just going to let them die?"

"Collateral damage," Fairleigh said dismissively. "Think about the bigger picture, Caleb. Once we destroy the Superior's rule, it will all fall into place. This simple act will make sense in the long run."

It infuriated me, the way he was so calm, so utterly dispassionate. He spoke about killing innocent people as if he were discussing a day at work. But even as anger boiled inside me, and I glared at the man, ready to explode, Fairleigh simply looked on with a tranquil expression.

"What about murder makes sense, Fairleigh?" I practically shouted. He raised an eyebrow, staring at me patiently. "How can you write off killing a bunch of innocent people as 'collateral damage?'"

The man hesitated, then strode over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. It was almost comical, as I was nearly a head taller than him, but he didn't seem even slightly intimidated by the size difference.

"I wish it didn't have to be this way," Fairleigh said sadly. I tried to shrug his hand away, but he held on with surprising strength. "I am not a violent man, and having to take these measures saddens me. But sometimes, sacrifices must be made to ensure the prosperity of the greater good."

"The greater good," I echoed hollowly.

Just then, a shrill beeping filled the air. Fairleigh retrieved a small cellphone from the pocket of his jeans and glanced at its screen with a blank expression. He pocketed the phone as quickly as he had extracted it, then fixed me with a saccharine smile.

"I'm sorry, Caleb, but I have some important business to attend to. It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, but I'm afraid this meeting must come to an end."

He jump back into the tunnels quicker than I could respond.

"Wait!" I called after him. His crunching footsteps paused, though I couldn't see his face. Knowing that my time would be limited, I hurried on. "There's a woman here, Myra Shea. She's a prisoner, but she's a member of the Pro-Inferiors. You're planning to help her, right?"

For a long, tense moment, there was no sound, and I wondered if Fairleigh had slipped away while I was speaking. Then, as I held my breath, he sighed, punctuating the silence with his quiet exhalation. And when he spoke, it sounded like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"She no longer believes in our cause," he said to me. "Her fate is out of our hands."

I leaped toward the trap door. "No, you can't—" But Fairleigh was already gone, dashing through the tunnels so quickly that his steps reverberated in my ears.

"You're as bad Ms. Shea said you were," I hissed, thinking of all the people running beneath the Capitol with bombs strapped to their backs. With an angry swipe, I kicked the door shut.

○●○●○●○

"So, what's going on?"

Christopher slid out of the supply closet just as I stepped wearily around the corner. His expression was solemn, his jaw set and his eyebrows knit. I held up my hands in an empty shrug.

"Bombs," I murmured. "They're going to blow it up. All of it."

Strangely, my brother didn't look the least bit surprised. He sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets and shaking his head. I was taken aback by the dejected look on his face.

"I guess it was too good to be true, then," he said. "One government is criticized for being too violent, and the one that succeeds it is even worse. There's no hope for us, is there?"

"Guess not," I replied, though I knew he was speaking rhetorically.

Chris sighed again, then looked at me seriously. "So, what are we going to do, little brother?"

I considered for a moment, unsure of what to say. That question was so broad in our situation, considering all the people at risk, all the possible actions we could take. But I knew where to start.

"There's a woman being held here. Her name is Myra Shea, and she was my teacher back in Seattle." I hesitated. "She was probably your teacher, too. She was a member of the Pro-Inferiors, but they refuse to protect her because she wouldn't help them in their plans. Miracle was torturing her, so she's pretty beaten up. But I can't let her die."

My brother regarded me with an careful expression, his eyes narrowed as if he was trying to decide whether or not I was being serious. After a moment, he let out a long breath and ran a hand through his hair.

"God, Caleb," he muttered. "What kind of mess have you gotten us into?" He laughs a little bit, humorlessly. "Any idea where she's being held?"

"Three floors up, cell twenty-three."

"Then we might as well get a move on," Chris said. "I have a feeling that our time is limited."

We retraced our steps back down the corridor, taking quick, quiet strides in our haste to beat the clock. As we walked, though, I found myself plagued with the same feeling as before: that someone was behind us, shadowing every move we made. I tried to shake it off as we reached an elevator and Christopher pressed the button.

The wait was agonizing. Every second the elevator took to descend meant one less second to get Ms. Shea—and ourselves—to safety. I cursed myself for not asking Fairleigh about the detonation time when we'd spoken earlier; it should have been the first thing out of my mouth when I'd first learned of his plan.

The elevator doors dinged open finally, and Christopher stepped inside. I, however, hesitated, somehow knowing that someone was watching me. I whirled around, catching a flash of blue rounding the nearest corner.

"Hold the door," I hissed to my brother, before turning and chasing the snippet of color against the dull gray stone. Around the corner, a girl in a blue dress stood with her back to me, looking left and right as if trying to figure out where to run. When she heard my approaching footsteps, the girl glanced back over her shoulder, and I recognized her as the candidate who had run into me back at the ceremony. Her eyes widened as her hair whipped over her shoulder, and she tried to run. But I was faster, and she had barely taken a step before I was beside her, grabbing her arm to keep her from moving away. I dragged her, kicking and screaming, back to the elevator where Christopher waited, holding the door open with a bemused expression.

"How did you get here?" I demanded, glaring at the girl. When at first she didn't answer, I tightened my grip on her arm.

She lifted her chin defiantly. "I followed you." Her matter-of-fact tone implied that it should have been obvious. "I saw you leaving, and I followed you."

The way she said it, she might as well have been talking about going out to walk her dog. Totally calm, totally careless.

"Why would you do something so stupid?" Chris stepped forward, blocking the elevator door with his body and leaning into the girl's space. "Do you have any idea what everyone will do when they realize you're not there?"

The girl responded with just as much venom, snarling, "Well, that's why I'm not going back. I know something's happening, or the two of you wouldn't be down here. And I intend to find out what it is."

"Go back to the ceremony," my brother commanded, looking disgusted. I was about to second his words, but hesitated as I remembered that anyone still in the ceremony would be dead soon, probably by the end of the hour.

"And say what?"

Christopher shrugged messily. "Tell them you went to the bathroom and got lost. Make something up. You're a Popular; don't you know how to lie?"

But the girl shook her head. "I'm coming with you."

I clenched my fists, uncomfortably aware of how much time we were wasting. "No, you're not," I snapped, stepping back and forcing my brother into the elevator car. "Chris, close the doors."

Christopher's hand slammed against the "close door" button, with the girl's eyes following it. As the doors began to close, she looked up—and in one quick movement, ducked into the elevator as well. It was a narrow gap, but she managed to squeeze, slipping in just as the doors slithered shut behind her. She beamed triumphantly.

Both my brother and I opened our mouths, ready to shout at her, but the girl held up a hand.

"I just want to know what's going on," she said as the car began to move upward. I was surprised at how calm she sounded, how professional. Not whiny, but not angry, either. She had a no-nonsense air about her, and she stared me down like I wasn't a good two heads taller than her.

"Good lord," Christopher mumbled, pressing his forehead against the cool metal of the elevator wall.

"It's too late to stop me now," the girl pointed out, tugging at the end of her short, dark hair. "The only way you'll get me back to that ceremony is by taking me there yourselves, and I have a feeling that neither of you are willing to do that."

Christopher and I glanced at each other, knowing that the girl was right. We hardly had an option now but to let her tag along.

"My name is Jeanette," she said as the door slid open on the prison block floor. "Do we stop off here?"

A/N: This could have been longer. But, since I have to go to sleep, we'll end the chapter in a slightly awkward position that will actually make things easier for the next chapter. Enjoy!