And then he was kissing me, as though we'd been apart for more than just one night. As though he'd never let me go again, if he could help it.

  And I clung to him, as though I wholeheartedly agreed. And I kissed him back, as though I really meant it.

  And neither of us heard a single sound our audience made. In this there was only each other.

  Chapter 13

  It Was At That Point, That I Well And Truly Fucking Lost It

  Trent

  Like rising from a foggy dream, Lena came to her senses. The sounds of the odd shocked Citizen gasp behind her, no doubt making for a faster surfacing than she’d otherwise have attempted.

  Again, I had the feeling I might have taken advantage of her. Attacked when her defences were down. Laid siege to her battlements when they had all but crumbled. She’d stood so still and silent when I’d rushed in the room, that it should have been a warning.

  Lena may have easily effected the Elite statuesque pose when required, but she was never truly motionless. Her face a constant narrative of what she felt inside; if you knew what to look for. I’d made a study of Lena over the past month. I knew every nuance, every small twitch or sudden in drawing of breath. I knew what a darker shade of blue in her eyes meant. I easily recognised what each of her extremely precise smiles conveyed; anger, condescension, mock politeness, or on the rare occasion, true humour.

  I knew her.

  And I shamelessly took advantage of a lowering of her guard and stormed in.

  But she was pulling away now. Placing distance between us which was familiar but absolutely not fucking wanted. Audience or no. I almost reached out to stop her retreat, but managed to still my hand at my side before it shifted.

  Lena was also a delicate bird, underneath the haughty mannerisms and cutting remarks. Behind the recklessness and adrenaline fuelled hunger, there was a fragile hummingbird desperately in need of escape.

  I let her pull away, all the while planning my next advance. It would require military precision. I wasn’t above using every tool in my arsenal, an arsenal honed by a fanatical rebel leader father, to get what I wanted in the end.

  And I wanted Lena. Not just her trust. Not just her loyalty.

  I wanted her heart.

  And I would have it.

  “You’ve brought me people, Lena,” I said with mock surprise and delight, ignoring the slight flush to her pale cheeks that was very appealing. Ignoring the fact I’d just devoured her mouth in front of complete strangers and created that pink tinge to her porcelain skin.

  How very un-model-like.

  “You shouldn’t have,” I added, well aware of the fact I hadn’t claimed Tan’s men yet, and now I had more people to convince of my leadership. Oh happy day.

  “Some of the Citizens from the container ship,” she announced as my gaze alighted on a zebra-lookalike teenager that seemed to hang on every word Lena spoke. The girl’s eyes darted between me and the object of her adoration, a look of awe - or was that shock? - on her face.

  “Welcome,” I offered the group at large. “I’ll have one of my men take down your names and skills. I’m sure you’ll be a much valued addition to our cause.”

  “You assume we all wish to join your war,” a man announced. Standing behind the zebra-lookalike girl as though connected to her somehow.

  I furrowed my brow, confused at his placement, both in this bunker and at Lena’s groupie’s side.

  “You wish to chance the streets?” I asked. “Attempt another wiping?”

  He slowly shook his head.

  “So, you’d like to avail yourself of our hospitality and security, but not contribute anything in return?”

  “Ignore him,” the zebra-lookalike suddenly suggested. “He’s finding it difficult to adjust.” She glared at the man as only a child could glare at a frustrating parent.

  “I see,” I said, but in actuality I was finding it difficult to see the dogged mentality of our Citizens. The sheep-like behaviour that represented their brainwashing. When did we stop thinking for ourselves? Was it as soon as General Chew-wen drugged us? Or did it happen over time in an insidious fashion which was hidden behind the Serenity stupor?

  “They’ll be fine, Trent,” Lena offered from the side. She’d managed to take several steps towards the door leading to the hallway. Her escape plan already in effect.

  I nodded my head - no doubt they would be fine - but found myself unable to tear my gaze away from her afterwards. Disliking seeing her flee so fast. Something had happened out there. More than just battling for her life. Something significant that Lena was having difficulty digesting.

  I wanted to comfort her.

  I knew I couldn’t.

  Not here, not now. Not when Selena the Elite was returning to that beautiful face of hers. The shoulders back, the spine straight, composure only skin deep and no further.

  She would not have welcomed my care.

  “Very well,” I said. “Emir and Paul will take your details, discuss the rules with you if you choose to stay. Outline those areas you can and cannot use of this facility.”

  A few of the new arrivals nodded their heads, eager to get settled and find some semblance of safety in a world suddenly gone batshit crazy all around them. A couple just watched warily, unease and indecision on their faces. Had Lena even vetted these people? Surely out of the dozens trapped in those containers she could have chosen her army a little better.

  And great. Now I had “Tan’s Army” and “Lena’s Army” flashing in neon writing behind my closed eyelids. “Trent’s Army” lay in shattered fluorescent tubes, sparking in its death throes on the floor of my mind.

  I reached up and pinched the bridge of my nose, then said a little gruffly, “Debrief.”

  Then walked out of the room, passing Lena without so much as a glance, and headed towards Si.

  The sound of multiple footsteps at my back let me know that at least some of the team had followed my directive. I didn’t stop until I made the tech room, and then pressing a hand against my stitches before I realised I’d made the move, came to rest against Si’s desk. My back to the vid-screens, my scowling face towards the bedraggled people walking in.

  The only ones missing were Emir and Paul. A fact I found surprising. I’d expected Tan to send at least one of his men out to the new arrivals to make sure mine weren’t converting them all to Trentism. But he simply leaned back against a wall, crossed his ankles, and started cleaning his gun. It had probably seen a fair bit of action tonight, while mine lay pristine in its holster at my thigh.

  I ran a hand through my hair in utter frustration. Enough! No more convalescing, it was time to get back out there and fight this war.

  “How many people out there?” I asked, nodding toward the communal room.

  “Twenty,” Alan supplied.

  “Your zebra-lookalike amongst them,” I said, catching Lena’s eye.

  “Li Xiu Ying,” she advised. “And her family.”

  “Realistically, how many can we use?”

  “I didn’t bring them here to be used,” she countered.

  “Lena,” I started.

  Alan interrupted with, “A dozen. The rest are too young. I haven’t counted the mothers. They could be useful around the base.”

  “It’s better than expected.”

  “It’s horrific,” Lena argued. Her chin lifting, her eyes darkening. She was in an argumentative mood.

  “We don’t have the space for many more, anyway,” I offered, wanting to calm her, but somehow missing the boat completely on that front.

  Her hands clenched, her eyes narrowed. I forced myself not to smile at her defiant stance. For some reason seeing Lena get all riled up made me happy. Proved beyond a shadow of doubt that the woman was not complacent.

  “And again, you think I only brought them here because they could offer something to the cause.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you did it for more reasons than that, Zebra,” I offered. Lena’s intelligent mind would have been firing brilliantly from every angle. It always did. “But it would have been a consideration, yes?”

  “Not all of us are obsessed with the rebellion, Trent. Some of us actually care about this country’s people.”

  Oh, she did not.

  “And I’m fighting this damn near losing battle because I want to, right? Because I’d rather be cut down by laser beams and spend two fucking weeks in bed and not be out there changing our society for the good. I’d rather watch my friends, good men and women, get wiped and sent to God knows where to do God knows what because it makes me look important, makes me feel big, is that it? Jesus, Lena. You must think I’m fucking selfish. Or maybe it’s egotistical, would that be more appropriate?”

  Part of me was aware I’d snapped back a little too forcefully, but the part of me confined to the bunker for a fortnight, who had impotently watched and listened to tonight’s events unfold from the safety of a control room, had simply had enough.

  I’d had enough.

  And I couldn’t even comfort her.

  “Trent, no one is saying you don’t care,” Tan helpfully replied. “But you must agree, your focus is completed blinkered. You only see one thing. The chance to change the way Wánměi is. You don’t stop to think about the suffering along the way.”

  “That is utter bullshit,” Si growled. “You have no idea what Trent has done and seen to get us where we are now.”

  “And yet, where you are now is almost non-existent,” Tan offered.

  “Riding on in to our rescue, are you Tan?” Alan drawled.

  “Someone’s got to,” a guy called Wang Jie, one of Tan’s sycophant followers, said. “You had no base until we provided it.”

  “We had a base. We had two,” Si shot back, voice raised.

  “Two bases you managed to get destroyed,” Jared, another of Tan’s less outspoken men offered. He seemed nervous as soon as he spoke up, but did add, “God knows what you’ll do to this one if we don’t keep an eye on you.”

  “That’s because you’re playing at this rebelling thing, when we’ve actually been living it for years,” Alan calmly offered.

  “And then there’s no army,” Wang Jie went on, as though ticking off an imaginary list. “You lost one of those too.”

  “And now you’ve been presented with two of ‘em,” Jared added, a twitch in his left eyebrow the only indication he was uncomfortable right now. In comparison, his words were masterfully flung. “One from your girlfriend, because you can’t even round up men who want to fight for you.”

  “That’s enough,” Tan said, almost reluctantly, but it was too late.

  Alan had Wang Jie by the scruff of the neck up against a wall, and Si was swinging a fist at Jared. Both had moved in lightning speed, proving how well they were trained in comparison to their targets.

  I went to open my mouth and, reluctantly, agree with Tan. It was enough. But my eyes caught on the black smudge of Lena’s clothing as she crept out of the room and snuck off down the hall.

  Escaping.

  It was at that point, that I well and truly fucking lost it.

  Chapter 14

  It Consumed Us

  Lena

  I could hear Trent hit ballistic back down the hall. But the strange thing was, his voice grew chillingly quiet, not loud as you’d expect from someone with his deep timbre as they shouted or bellowed. The volume, though, wasn’t so low that it was hard to hear; it was in no way soft. All hard edged but so very controlled. An anomaly that had you listening no matter what you’d just been doing.

  I found myself listening even now, as I kept walking, albeit at a slower pace, from the debacle that had just unfolded. It had been like this for the past two weeks. Tan pushing Trent’s buttons. Trent’s men biting back.

  Trent strangely composed and not fighting.

  Something had happened to Trent these past two weeks and it made my heart ache to witness. I couldn’t stay in the room a second longer.

  But I also couldn’t stop myself from eavesdropping and finding out how it played out.

  Trent had a spell over me that was quite remarkable really. A Citizen who led by example and strove to do what was right.

  Not like I’d been.

  Tan and his men had Trent all wrong. He wasn’t blinkered. He was focused. But not to the detriment of Wánměi’s people.

  And it had not been what I’d meant to say back in the room. A strange sense of guilt washing over me now at his reaction to my words. Somehow I had become the one who fumbled over my sentences, who opened her mouth and inserted her foot. That had been Trent’s modus operandi. But lately, Trent had not been himself at all.

  None of us were.

  I leaned against the wall of the deserted hallway and listened to Trent stripping down Tan and his men without even raising his voice. I listened to the rise and fall of his low words, the natural flow that had you leaning forward and waiting for what he said next. Trent was a born public speaker. Which made his foot-in-mouth moments that much more endearing. But when he had reason to really get his point across nothing could deter him. And nothing could make you turn away.

  He was a leader in every sense. Why Tan insisted on picking him apart publicly, I didn’t know. But my “brother” was starting to push his limits with me as well.

  “You think this is all a game?” Trent was saying. I closed my eyes and tipped my head back against the wall. “You think we haven’t seen this all before? The boredom that leads to disgruntlement, that leads to dissension. And I’m not talking about last night being slow; you know damn well that it wasn’t,” he said before anyone of Tan’s men could interrupt him. “But for the past two weeks we have been waiting and watching and hanging on by our fingertips, trying to see what the fuck is going on with the Overseers.

  “And then there’s the Chief Overseer,” he added. “The fact that his death has not been announced. I see it in your eyes. The doubt, the question: Did we actually kill him?”

  There was a pause, as though Trent was eyeing each of Tan’s men carefully, maybe running a hand through his hair, messing it up.

  “It’s what they want,” he continued, voice more subdued, but no less controlled. “They want your doubt. They want you to question. They want you… imbalanced. Do you think this is the first time the Overseers have done it?” A sound, an almost derisive huff. “It took five days to confirm my father was dead. And ten years to find out he hadn’t been killed by Calvin Carstairs. How do you think we handled that? I’ll tell you how,” he said without hesitation. “We questioned our intel. We second guessed our sources, what we already knew for sure. We lost our way.

  “It was not a good time, but we rallied. We learnt. And we suffered again in different ways. For the past ten years we’ve been doing this without the men who led this rebellion from the start. We’ve adapted, we’ve improved, we’ve tested and reconsidered. Ten years, gentlemen, of what you’ve experienced in two short weeks.”

  Silence was his only reply. But I thought perhaps this silence was good. They were listening. Like I was listening. Unable to turn away.

  “And now this,” Trent finally said. “This squabble after an event that has changed the playing field we’re standing on, and all we can do is fight about who has the biggest balls, who has the right to lead this army into battle.

  “I hate to tell you, but we’re already at war. And if we keep going the way we are, we’ll fall apart. A two headed monstrosity that ends up tangled and dead.”

  His voice quietened even further; the first time I had to strain to hear his words. I found myself walking slowly closer to the open doorway, hoping proximity would mean I’d hear what Trent had to say next. Knowing he was winding up, even though he sounded like he was calming down.

  Trent would not be calm. Not in the slightest. He’d be a lit match away from going boom!

  “You need training. I’m not saying you haven’t got something to offer that we may not have thought of. I’m talking about the fact that two of my men just got the drop on you in the middle of a confrontation when your guard should have been up. You are reckless but conversely slow to react. You have the stamina and drive, you have the will to win this war, but you lack the experience, the know-how. The skills.

  “We can give that to you. We can show you how to fight. Train you to use your weapons efficiently. Teach you to infiltrate stealthily. We can turn you into rebels. But we cannot do any of it, unless you trust us. Trust me.

  “Lena was right. I am focused. I was raised in the thick of rebellion, groomed to take over one day. And hardened into who you see before you over the past ten years of surviving inside a fire of oppression and hate. But I believe. I believe in One Wánměi. I believe we can make a difference. And I believe we can do it together. You, me, those people out there in the communal room, whoever else wants to change this nation and make it into what it should have always been. I truly believe we can do it.

  “But we cannot do it like this. The question is, are you with me or against me? Do you want to be rebels or do you want to play at it? I’ll let you decide.”

  Movement sounded out through the doorway, so I hurriedly turned and started marching quickly away, praying I’d make the corner before anyone stepped out of the room. Knowing I didn’t have a show in hell of doing so. It seemed a bloody mile away.

  My heart was beating frantically; the thrill of getting caught. But also, the complete elation at hearing Trent speak as he’d once done when we’d first met. So much had happened since our meeting in Muhgah Keekee; him appearing as a Cardinal, but clearly anything but. Oh, he’d carried the role off adequately, fooled a Cardinal controlled drone. Fooled even me. But there’d been a cockiness I could see in amongst the deep blue of his eyes. A sense of awareness that thrummed through every single word he’d said.

  He’d been so alive. And I’d been drawn to him like a moth to a naked flame.

  And to hear him speak now, to prove how much he had seen and done, how much he had overcome, it made my pulse spike, my breaths shallow, and an awareness of my own to thrum through me.