Renegade: The Empowered series prequel story Read online

  It was funny, Gus wasn’t so creepy anymore. In fact, I could see he cared about the people here, and they cared about him. Most looked like they were streeters, old people mainly, but there were younger ones closer to my age. After breakfast they all went off to do work on projects and do chores. No one complained. They all smiled, joked, and laughed at each other’s dumb jokes.

  Maybe Tanya was right. Maybe Hideaway was a place where you could belong. That decided it for me. I had to be here, to find out if I could belong. But I couldn’t just not go home without saying something. I had to tell Ruth.

  Tanya thought I was nuts. “Better not to go back.”

  “I can’t do that. She won’t know what happened to me.”

  Tanya nodded. “Exactly. That means she can’t tell the police, and they can’t tell Support, and Support can’t tell the Hero Council.”

  “We’re not bothering anybody.” That was the first time I said “we” about Hideaway.

  Tanya smiled. She’d heard me include myself. She got serious. “That’s not what the Hero Council will think.”

  “Screw them.” This was our thing, not theirs.

  Chapter 5

  Gus went with me. Said I could use the company. We both worked at a shelter, he said. Tell Ruth that. Well, that was true.

  Driver-man met us topside. He wore his gray chauffeur’s cap and navy blue buttoned coat. He took us over to a building across the street, and lifted a big roll-up door. Turned out that was Hideaway’s garage, filled with all kinds of cars and trucks, maybe fifteen or twenty vehicles all together. He picked a brown Ford Dasher. I got in the front, while Gus got in the back.

  I started to give Driver-man directions.

  “Already know how to get to your Grandmother’s place,” he said.

  “How do you know?”

  “I gave Tanya rides over there after Sissy detected you.” That should have creeped me out, but it didn’t. Funny how you can get used to things so quickly.

  We pulled up in front of the house. I got out, and Gus followed me. I stopped at the gate in the little white picket fence. Ruth’s rose bushes sang a happy tune in my head.

  “Better stay with Driver-man,” I told Gus.

  He blinked. “I want to support you.”

  “You have, dude. But Ruth’s going to wonder.”

  Gus nodded toward the house. “Think she already does.”

  Ruth watched us from the living room window. Shit.

  I fought not to frown. Okay, we’d go with Gus’s “we both-work-at-a-shelter thing.”

  But I couldn’t not tell her I was leaving. Suddenly I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave home. Ruth opened the door for us.

  “Hi, Grandma,” I said. She raised an eyebrow. I never called her grandma, it was always Ruth. I turned to Gus. “This is my friend, Gus.”

  Gus nodded. “Gus Silco, ma’am.”

  Ruth raised an eyebrow at the word “friend.”

  “We both work at a shelter,” Gus added.

  Great, now I had to explain that. But I’d have had to explain it anyway, so there we were.

  “Shelter?” Ruth asked. “You’d both better come in and tell me all about it.”

  Tanya would be royally pissed if she were here with us. The last thing she’d want was for us to “tell Ruth all about it.” Thank God she wasn’t.

  Ruth sat us down at the kitchen table. Offered Gus coffee, which he gratefully took. I had orange juice.

  Ruth sat down, looked at me over the brim of her coffee mug. “I thought you were staying at a friend’s.”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d understand,” I said.

  She raised an eyebrow. “So you lie to me instead? Why wouldn’t you want me to know you were at a shelter? Unless you were staying there, instead of helping.”

  I slammed down my glass, and the table rattled. “I’m doing both!”

  “Hey, Mat, it’s okay,” Gus said.

  “Sorry, Grandma. Sorry, Gus.” I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry I lied.”

  “It’s because you are staying with other Empowered, isn’t it?” Ruth asked. Her voice sounded brittle, worried. Ruth never sounded worried. “What’s the point,” she would say. “Would it do any good?” She never worried. But now she was worried.

  I let out my breath. “They’re good people, Ruth!”

  She gave me a sad look. “No doubt they are.” She looked at Gus. “You are one of them, aren’t you?”

  He hesitated, nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “That’s an old-style field jacket,” Ruth said. “It’s way before your time.”

  “It was a gift, ma’am. From a friend who’d been in the Army.”

  She put down her mug. “I served in the Army, saw duty in Europe.” Her eyes got that haunted look they always did when she remembered what she saw in the Reclamation zones.

  I swallowed. “We’re not hurting anybody, Ruth.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “They won’t see it that way, Mathilda. You are breaking the law. There are only two choices. Sanctioned or foresworn.”

  “What’s wrong with rogue?” My words were hot. She just didn’t get it.

  “It’s illegal.”

  “Will you report us?” Gus asked.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know anything to report.” She leaned forward, grabbed my hand. “But don’t do this, Mattie. Please.”

  Ruth never begged. I chewed my lip. What choice did I have? I didn’t want to be an asshole in a blue jumpsuit. Besides, the Professor seemed too smart to go to prison. His plan was to keep us safe and hidden.

  I lifted my chin. “I’m sorry, Ruth. But I have to.”

  She sighed, and shook her head. “It’s your choice.”

  Gus looked at Ruth, then me, then back to Ruth again. “You aren’t going to stop us, Ma’am?” He couldn’t believe it. “I mean, your grand daughter is sixteen.”

  She sighed, suddenly looking very tired. “People have to make their own choice, Gus. Mattie must make hers.” Her eyes grew soft, and sad. “No matter what, I will always love you, Mat.”

  I didn’t cry until I was back in the car with my backpack filled with clothes and a duffel bag with more of my stuff. I rubbed fiercely at my eyes.

  The Professor was pleased I had chosen to stay. So was Tanya, once she had gotten over being pissed at me for saying goodbye to Ruth.

  “You’re one of us,” she told me. “You’re a renegade.”

  I liked the sound of that.

  Growing the plants wasn't hard. The Professor guided me, planter by planter. But that was only the first room. There were six. By the third I was pretty tired. The fourth gave me a headache. The fifth had me wanting to puke my guts out. I sat with my back against a concrete wall, eyes closed, and tried to stop the muscle spasms in my chest. It took me a couple of hours before I could do the sixth, and even then, it was hard.

  I fell into the cot they had waiting for me, in a little side room I now shared with Tanya. The Professor said that, with practice, I'd be able to ripen the vegetables and fruit. He was working on setting up a seventh room for soybeans. People ate a lot.

  I never thought about it before I had to help grow their food. “We can’t eat insta-meals after we become self-sufficient,” the Professor told me.

  There was a room with compost bins for kitchen and human waste, to be used as fertilizer. The place stank to high heaven.

  “We have to be able to take care of ourselves,” he told me. “Building a self-sufficient community is filled with challenges. We need to come up with our own food and water supply, a means to create material goods, etc. But most of all, we need a power supply, and a means of ensuring we remain hidden.”

  I asked him what he meant by hidden. He said he’d show me later. Of course they weren’t going to trust the new girl that fast.

  Days went by. I started to lose track of time. I met more of the normals. Including Toby Armitage, Roland’s son. Toby had gray hair as long as Sissy's, and liked to wear flo
ppy sandals instead of shoes. He had old army pants, the kind with pockets everywhere, and olive green army shirts, but he didn't seem military at all. Not like Ruth, who'd been in the army. Toby seemed real gentle, the kind of dude that would break if you got angry at him.

  I didn't see Tanya much, only when it was time for meals and bed. She asked me lots of questions, but wouldn't answer mine about what she was doing, other than it was with Gus. Bugged me that she wouldn’t share. So much for being friends.

  Gus had this habit of appearing out of nowhere. It bugged me at first, then it just annoyed me, and finally, it was just kinda funny, in a weird way.

  There were a few kids around, I heard them laughing. I expected more Empowered—but there was only me, Tanya, the Professor, Sissy, Gus.

  Gus also mentioned someone called “The Lolit.”

  “Lolit? What kind of name was that?” I asked him.

  He gave me this big, goofy grin. “You have to meet the Lolit to find out.”

  I was beyond antsy. I’d been down in the basement for who knew how long now. We ate insta-meals. Only insta-meals. They were old insta-meals, too. Like Mac-n-cheese and Salisbury steak-type old. Must have been from Roland’s private stash. Lots of canned pears, too. Professor said once we got our own food system fully functioning (his words) we’d be able to go natural with our food.

  When I tried to explore beyond the plant rooms and the cafeteria, I ran into a man and woman, in old army field jackets like Gus wore, guarding a locked metal door with a sign over it that read “Lab”, “Library,” and “Power Room.”

  “You have to stay on this side of the door,” the dude told me. Both of them looked like they’d been in a few fights.

  “Just want to look around. We’re on the same side,” I said.

  The woman looked like she doubted that. “Go back, please.”

  A muscle in my neck throbbed, but I turned around. The same thing happened when I found another locked metal door with a sign over it that read “Emergency Exit.” There was a young guy there with a buzz cut, in jeans and a sweatshirt.

  “Sorry, can’t go this way.” He nodded up at the sign over his head. “Only for emergencies.”

  So I went back to the damn plant rooms.

  That night, when Tanya came into our little room next to Plant Room Four, I’d had it.

  “I’m a fucking prisoner! Why the hell did I join you guys? Don’t you trust me? I thought I was one of you.” I went on like that for a while.

  Tanya cocked her head to one side, let me rant. “Finished?” she asked when I stopped for air and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

  I put my hands on my hips. “I thought we were friends.”

  She looked like I’d hit her in the face. “We are friends, Mat. I knew we’d be friends the moment we’d found you.”

  Found me. I didn’t have a choice, apparently. Well, I did. I was getting the hell out of dungeon-ville. “Excuse me,” I said, pushing past her.

  She grabbed my arm. “Hold on.” She was stronger than I thought. She had me good.

  She gave me an understanding look. “Listen, I had to go through the same thing. You have to earn their trust.”

  Trust. “How the hell do I do that?”

  She let go, patted my arm. “Be steadfast, for one.”

  I blinked. “Steadfast?”

  “Yeah, you know, hang in there. Prove you are worth trusting by helping, by not trying to go where you shouldn’t.”

  “That’s not fair. You are asking me to stay stuck in the plant rooms for God only knows how long.”

  “You can go to the cafeteria.”

  “At least I won’t starve.” I clutched my hands in frustration. “Nice to know.”

  “And the game room. You can go there.”

  “I don’t play games. Besides, I barely know anybody. And the one person I feel close to—you, isn’t around.”

  She looked away. “At least you had sisters growing up.”

  That stopped me. “No sibs?”

  “No family. I’m an orphan like Gus.”

  I let out the air I’d been holding in. “I’m sorry. I’m a jerk.” I’d never asked her about her family.

  She smiled at me, her eyes wet. “But, you know what? When you’re right, you’re right. Tell you what. There’s a job on my list you can help me with.”

  I leaned forward. “A job? What kind of job?”

  “The illegal kind.”

  “Stealing something?”

  “Yes. But I prefer to think of it as reappropriating.”

  I shook my head. “You sure know a lot of big words, girl.”

  She grinned. “Comes from hanging out around the Professor.”

  “How long have you been here?” I asked. “Or can’t you tell me?”

  She sat on her bunk bed. “Sure I can tell. Six months.”

  Since winter.

  “What about the Professor?”

  She shrugged. “Longer than me. I don’t know how much.” Her face went serious, and she looked me in the eye long enough I started to shift my feet.

  Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. “You trying to creep me out?”

  “Sissy says if you really look at someone, without judging, just look at them, they’ll show themselves to you.”

  “Sissy’s nearly blind.”

  Tanya laughed quietly. “There are other ways to see, kid.”

  “So, you trying to see the real me?”

  She nodded again. “To see if you are willing to steal from those who can spare it, to help those who can’t.”

  “A Robin Hood-kind of thief?”

  She laughed. “Yeah.”

  I still felt like an outsider, but this was a place for me, a place where I could be me, without having to wear a blue jumpsuit and salute when ordered to, or, sign away using my power for life.

  “Is that what you’ve been doing?” I asked her.

  “Yup. Me and Gus.”

  Figures he would be stealing. Being able to go invisible would make stealing a lot easier. Then again, maybe he couldn’t hide what he stole. I wanted to ask Tanya, but she was staring at me again.

  “If it’s for those in need,” I grinned, “then yeah, I’ll do it. Definitely.” I reached out to shake Tanya’s hand, but she grabbed it and pulled me into a hug. Now my eyes were suddenly wet. Damn it.

  Chapter 6

  We napped for a couple of hours, and then Tanya took me through the halls to Gus’s room, which was up a flight of stairs. The guards let us past without question. Yeah, I’d say they trusted her. Gus’s room looked like a guard room. It was right beside the main doors, on a landing. She rapped on the door.

  “Come on, Gus, open up.”

  I heard the faint sound of a bolt being drawn back, the door lock clicking open, and then there was Gus, wearing grungy jeans and a sweatshirt, his long black hair all wild, rubbing his eyes. Tanya nudged him back into the room.

  “Hey!” he protested, blinking.

  “Got a job for us,” Tanya said. She nodded at me. “Mat’s coming with.”

  The room smelled like musty paper. The shelves behind him stuffed with books. More were piled beside a folding chair, and paperbacks covered a trashed-looking coffee table.

  Gus pulled on his field jacket, then sat on a army cot in a corner and put on combat boots that looked like they were from the Three Days War.

  Tanya caught my eye and nodded her head at a poster covering the far wall. It was a map of the world, from like 1970, showing the Russian, German and Chinese reclamation zones, with a United Nations logo.

  So what? I mouthed at her.

  She rolled her eyes. I shrugged. I didn’t get it.

  She went over to Gus, who was finishing lacing up his second boot. “Mat doesn’t know you’re are a history buff, Gus. Care to enlighten her?”

  Gus straightened up, looked wary, like he thought this was a trap to make him look dumb.

  “Come on, Gus,” Tanya said. “Why don’t you te
ll her why you like history?”

  He brushed his hair back from his face. “History’s important. You need to know what happened before. The Three Days War shaped the world, and we are still feeling its aftershocks.”

  “You sound like a history book,” I told him.

  Tanya snickered.

  Gus’s face scrunched up, but he bit his tongue and didn’t say anything. I suddenly felt bad for him, but I didn’t say anything. He was still at least slightly creepy Gus.

  But Tanya had shown me this for a reason. Gus loved history, he wasn’t really a creep. He just came off as one.

  “My grandma likes history, too,” I said at last.

  Gus looked at me warily, like I was baiting him.

  “No, really,” I said. “She does.” I felt a pang when I thought of Ruth. She would be worried about me. I was a selfish jerk, but I didn’t want to give up my power, and I wasn’t going to give up who I was, and go work for the Hero Council. I wanted to decide how I lived.

  His shoulders relaxed and he smiled. “That’s cool. Does she talk about it to you?”

  “Sometimes. Like when there’s an election or when there’s an incident in the Reclamation Zones, or a big Hero Council operation. She always wants to make it into a lesson. Says it’s important to know the historical context.”

  I got so tired of hearing about history. I only half-listened when Ruth brought it up. Most of the time at least. When President Gabriel was killed by that rogue Empowered when I was ten, I listened, because she was the first woman president. It was so wrong. We were all crushed. The secret service and the Hero Council were supposed have protected her. But there had been a conspiracy inside the government. Ruth said President Nixon had had to deal with two assassination attempts, President Reagan three.

  But nowadays things were supposed to be different. The Hero Council had protected Nixon and Reagan. Not President Gabriel when it counted, just because they had to deal with some crisis they wouldn’t even talk about. So a rogue Empowered killed the first woman president. I squeezed my eyes shut. I hated the Hero Council for letting her die. I never wanted to be one of them.