FREE SAMPLE (Ch.1)

Of all my interrogators, I hated Williams the most.

It wasn’t that he was the most brutal. Holt was always yelling like he forgot to put his hearing aid in. Blonde liked to use his fists, although he had yet to do anything worse than my dad had done. And Landa—well, Landa was the only one who scared me. He wasn’t loud and he wasn’t violent, but he was relentless. He would question me for hours, twisting words and spiking lies with the truth until I wasn’t sure what was real anymore.

Williams did none of that. If anything, his dull pragmatism was kind of annoying. But he did smoke—a lot, judging by the smell.

Every thirty minutes, he would go on break and come back reeking. And in the cramped interrogation room—with its sterile walls and too-bright lights—the effect was positively torturous.

I held my breath as he slid back into the chair across from me. “You know, this could all be over,” he drawled, which was how he opened every session.

I didn’t answer, mostly because I was trying not to cough.

He rubbed his lips with a stained finger. “I only have one question.”

I clenched my fists.

“Where is Philadelphia?”

I hated how he said her name, all croaked and craggily like she was an old witch. Philadelphia was beautiful and kind and courageous, and I’d die before I turned her—or any of our friends—in.

Which, at this rate, it might come to that.

When I didn’t respond for a long moment, Williams shifted in his chair. “You know where she is.”

I did know—or, at least, I could give a good description of the family who was sheltering her in Beijing.

“We won’t hurt her.”

That’s exactly what they’d do. The United would make a public example out of her. The government would burn “the thunderbird” at the stake, and then the revolution would be over before it started.

I couldn’t—wouldn’t—let that happen. Not on account of me.

“I talked to Lev.” Williams leaned forward and wheezed, assaulting me with his stale breath.

I pulled back as far as I could with my hands cuffed to the table. Lev had been arrested with me when the government busted our base. I hadn’t been allowed to see him since. I could only hope they weren’t keeping him locked in a blindingly-lit room and depriving him of sleep.

But at least they’d taken him alive—unlike the other person who had been on base. I flinched at the gruesome memory.

Williams squinted, as if searching for my weakness. “Lev already told me everything he knows.”

That was a lie, I was sure of it. Lev was only fourteen, but he wasn’t weak. He’d already seen more death and violence than the rest of us put together. And he was fiercely loyal to “Blue Fire”; he’d supported her at the risk of his own life once before. I prayed that hadn’t changed.

Besides, Lev didn’t know where Phil was, not specifically. I’d intentionally kept the information from him so he wouldn’t become a liability.

Unfortunately, that also made him expendable.

“We will find her,” Williams grunted, pausing after each word as if I could be threatened by enunciation. “We have other leads.”

I doubted it. If they had a lead, they wouldn’t have kept me alive. Philadelphia’s location was strictly classified. There were only three people in Boston who could give a name and address: Data, Tower, and me.

Data was still at large. Tower was dead. If the government wanted the information, they were going to have to go through me.

I resisted the urge to parrot Williams’ words as he finished his exhausted act. “If you make this easy, we’ll spare her associates and give you a full pardon.”

So many false promises. They’d offered me money, freedom, a chance to see Philadelphia one last time. What was offensive was that they thought it would work.

I’d had a dozen opportunities to save myself. But I’d made my choice, and I’d make it again and again, no matter how many times they asked me. After years of running and failing and being other people’s punching bag, I was finally doing something good. I’d done right by Philadelphia, and I would never throw that away, even if it killed me.

I looked Williams straight in the eye and said the one word that had become my lifeline: “No.”

He groaned, as if he were just as bored with the proceedings as I was. He slumped back in his chair and pressed a button on the table. “I can’t break him,” he announced, not that he’d tried all that hard. “Bring her in.”

I sat up. “Her?”

The door unlocked, and two more guards entered. One set a glowing tablet on the table in front of me. A hologram flickered to life above the screen, bringing me face to face with the only person I hated more than Williams: Asia.

Her technical title was Councilwoman Mong, but she’d long since lost the privilege of being addressed with any respect. She was the one who put a bounty on my girlfriend’s life. She was the one slaughtering my friends and persecuting the unassimilated. She was the reason I’d spent the last week cuffed to a table in an interrogation room answering stupid questions.

Of course, she never would have caught me if my own sister hadn’t turned me in.

“Hello, Stanyard,” Asia cooed. She was always cooing and purring and curling her fingers in weird motions like a demon-possessed cat.

“Hi,” I grunted.

“How are you feeling?”

As if it wasn’t obvious with my black eye and split lip. “I was doing better before you showed up.”

She smiled, revealing teeth that were so white they had to be fake. “You know it doesn’t have to be this way.”

“Yes, I’m quite aware there are several worse alternatives.”

“We can end this. We can stop all this bloodshed.”

“You can stop mass-murdering people anytime you like. You don’t need me for that.”

She continued reciting from her script like she hadn’t heard me. “All I need is her. She and I can end this war together. You have my word that I will not hurt her.”

“Still don’t believe you.”

Her perfect smile started to curl downwards. “I don’t enjoy this, Stanyard. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Coulda fooled me. Landa certainly enjoys his job.”

Williams smacked his lips.

She glanced at her diamond-encrusted watch. “And I normally pride myself in having a lot of patience, but I’m coming up on a deadline.”

We all were. Operation Day was in two weeks. In two weeks, if Philadelphia was successful, the revolution would start. People all over the world would stand up and say no to the government’s control.

After that, none of this would matter. If I could just hold out for two weeks, it would all be over.

Asia, of course, knew that. “So, I’m going to ask you one last time.”

“That’s what you said yesterday.”

She leaned towards the camera. “Where is Philadelphia?”

I pulled my shoulders back, set my jaw, and glared at her.

She let the silence hang for one minute, two. One of the guards coughed. I said nothing.

She finally took the hint and sank back in her chair with a sigh. “I wish it didn’t come to this.”

I shrugged, even as I braced myself for a new threat.

“But we have ways of making you talk.”

“Like what, waterboarding?” I snarked.

She fixed me with the same disapproving frown my high school teacher used to use. “Attitude,” she reproved. “But no. This is communist China. We’re much more… technologically advanced than that.”

I stiffened.

Her coy smile returned. “Have you heard of synaptic reading, Stanyard?”

My throat closed. No, not that.

“It’s quite a fascinating technology,” she continued, purring again. “Assuming you do know where Philadelphia is, all I have to do is implant a little chip in your brain, and I can read anything I want to know.”

I could barely hear her over the blood pounding in my ears. You can’t!

She tapped a pointy acrylic fingernail on her chin. “I would just love to get a look at that brilliant mind of yours. You’re such a smart boy—I’m sure you’re a treasure trove of information.”

She was right. I was a walking flash drive of intel—some of which was, arguably, even more dangerous than Philadelphia’s location. I knew dozens of names, passcodes, and addresses that weren’t stored on any server. Most importantly, I was very familiar with the code for Data’s broadcasting program.

Data was the unofficial leader of the Boston underground, and he was a close associate of Philadelphia’s. He and I had developed a backdoor that allowed us to highjack the government’s mandatory viewing protocol. With a few clicks, we could force any of Blue Fire’s videos to autoplay on every registered device on the planet.

It was the key to Operation Day’s success. If Asia found out, they’d patch our backdoor and silence us for good.

“I can get what I want,” Asia declared. “But it is such a messy procedure. All those wires and needles… And I hear it’s not really reversible.”

It wasn’t. Synaptic interfacing was permanent; it was almost impossible to remove all the wiring without causing brain damage. Once the chip was installed, my brain could be read by any synaptic device, anywhere. They could even make it wireless.

Asia relished my silence. “I’ll give you a few minutes to think about it. Give me what I want, and I’ll let you keep your mind to yourself.”

I bit my tongue.

“Bring him to me,” she ordered with a flick of her finger over her shoulder. “If he doesn’t talk within the hour, I want him on a plane to Beijing.”

“What about the Jew?” Williams asked. He slurred the name into an insult.

“Bring him along. I’m sure Philadelphia would love to see him.”

I shuddered. Lev was disposable. If Philadelphia—or I—didn’t break, they’d kill him. They might kill him anyway.

Asia was grinning now, eyes glittering with pure wickedness. “I look forward to meeting you in person, Stanyard.”

She winked, and the hologram went dark.

One of the guards retrieved the tablet. All I could hear in the sudden silence was heavy breathing. It took a minute to realize it was me.

Williams stood up. “You have twenty minutes to make your decision.” He left with the other soldiers, and the door thudded and locked behind them.

I put my head in my hands and raked my hair. I had to get out of here. I couldn’t let them rip my mind like a hard drive. It would compromise hundreds of people—Data, Jael, Philadelphia—and give the government a map of the underground. They already had the data from my servers, but it was nothing compared to the memories in my own mind.

Worse, once my brain was wired, I’d be a liability to everyone. The government would have the power to eavesdrop on all my thoughts. I could never see Philadelphia, or my parents, or anyone in the underground ever again—the United would immediately know everything.

I had to get out of here before they put me on a plane. But how? I’d been cuffed to a table or locked in a cell for the last I-don’t-know-how-many days. I had no idea where I was or what kind of building I was in. I didn’t even know what time it was.

I yanked on my chains in frustration. God, we can’t let this happen! I need you!

This couldn’t be how it ended. We had a real chance of winning this thing. We had global support from all levels of society and a broadcast program that could break the government’s control in one click. After over forty years of tyranny, we finally had the opportunity to end the United, and I was not going to be the reason we lost the war.

God, I need you! I screamed again, because it was the only thought I could string together. I tipped my head back and shouted at the ceiling, not caring who heard me. “I need a way out!”

There was no answer.

Time ticked by—slowly, the only sound in the cramped room the scrape of the chair on the floor as I fidgeted—until I could have sworn it had been more than twenty minutes. I prayed fiercely and searched my mind for any idea, any inspiration, any peace or burst of courage or anything. There was nothing.

Finally, the lock slid in the door. I braced myself as it swung open, bringing Williams’ disgusting scent back into the room. There was fumbling and clattering, like he tripped over the chair.

I refused to look up. He said nothing, his breathing ragged. I let the silence hang until I could stand it no longer.

“I’m not going to do it,” I declared, stating the one and only thing I knew to be true. “I won’t tell you where Philadelphia is.”

“Rude, but we didn’t ask.”

I jerked upright and would have fallen out of the chair had I not been cuffed to the table. I knew that voice—voices—and it wasn’t Williams.

Across the table sat John and Dowe.