Bill had just enough time to take a breath and now he held it as best he could, as Bertier's beefy hands squeezed at his throat. No, he said to himself. You didn't come all this way to drown in a foot of water.

  He thought of Mark, whose body had fought for so long after he sustained his injuries. Bill had promised to make his life count for something, to live on so that Mark's memory would live on through him. He wasn't going to let it end here. Bill grabbed Bertier's wrists in his hands. With every bit of strength he had left, he squeezed, cracking the small bones in the thug's wrists. Bertier's hands relaxed on Bill's throat, and the large teen fell backward clutching his broken wrists to his chest.

  Bill rose from the water, coughing and sputtering as he reclaimed his footing. Now he was towering over Bertier, who tried an awkward crabwalk away from the edge of the tide.

  "Get away," said Bertier. "Get away from me! The Supreme Leader will make you pay! You're gonna die, and all your friends. Your girl. Everybody you love. You're all dead, man."

  "No," said Bill. He dove on top of Bertier. The Security Force's young leader made one last thrust backward, and scooped up the knife. His broken wrist moved at a strange angle as he swung at Bill. Before he could think what he was doing, Bill grabbed the knife out of the air and redirected its trajectory down into Bertier's chest. Bertier continued to struggle for a few seconds and then he was gone.

  Bill rolled onto his back in the cold sand. He watched the stars as he struggled to catch his breath. His arm hurt like hell but he was alive. He thought maybe he'd sleep for a while here on the beach. He had been running on pretty close to empty most of the night and sleep seemed like a great idea. But that wouldn't be right. Not when his friends were still fighting this war.

  Bill rolled to a sitting position and slowly dragged himself to his feet. Sleep would come later. "I'll sleep when I'm dead!" he shouted to the wind. He didn't like the hint of madness in his voice. Better just get back to the fight. He walked up the beach and found Bertier's gun. Checking to make sure it was still loaded, Bill walked toward the street, where he would follow the rebels' steps into the building.

  Chapter 34

  Theo and his group took the staircase as high as they could. Floor by floor the exhausted men climbed. Periodically they heard distant bursts of gunfire. The rebel army was fighting the Security Force. Of that he had no doubt. Each new wave of shooting energized him as he scaled the floors. It meant Kylee's group was still fighting. Still alive, some of them anyway. He looked at the floor number. Twenty-four. "We're almost there," Theo called. Then, suddenly, a wall appeared in his path.

  "They built a wall to block the way to the executive floor?" Ryan asked.

  "Looks like it," Theo said. "They wanted to limit access, probably for situations like this."

  "Where do we go?" asked one of the other men... Seth, was it? Theo was struggling to remember the names of all the new people he was meeting. He felt ashamed, asking people to die for his cause when he didn't even know what to call them.

  "We go down there." He pointed to the door leading to the highest accessible floor.

  "But won't they know we're coming?" asked Wes. "They're going to herd us down a chute like cattle going to slaughter."

  "They're going to try," Theo agreed. "But we have no choice. If that wall blocking the stairs was drywall I'd say we could tear it down. We don't have the time or the equipment to get through concrete block. The main elevator is in the middle of the hall and I have to imagine there's a stairwell there that goes all the way to the top. There's no other move we can make."

  Theo hoped his voice still sounded calm and confident. His arm was completely useless now, tingling and numb. He wondered just how much damage that bullet had done to him. His head was starting to swim from the slow loss of blood. There was a very good chance that Wes was right. There was only one way for them to get to Tiberius and this was it. The Security Force, what was left of it anyway, would be blocking their path, he had no doubt.

  He sat down on the step, trying to reorient himself physically and mentally. He hadn't feared dying for a worthwhile cause, and he still didn't particularly worry about it now. What frustrated him was the thought of failing his friends, of dying this close to his goal.

  "Are you okay?" asked Ryan.

  "I'm going to be," Theo said. "This will be over soon."

  "I want you to know something," said Ryan.

  "What's that?"

  "Despite…despite everything that's happened, all the hardships, all this madness… you've been spectacular, Theo. I'm honored to be your friend."

  Theo didn't know what to say. He wrapped his good arm around Ryan's shoulders and pulled him into a hug right there on the stairwell. He stepped back, ready to see the war come to an end one way or another. Somehow, his friend had given him the strength to carry on.

  "Guys," he said, "I have to be honest. I can't use my right arm. I'm going to try to keep shooting with my left but my aim may be terrible. I will stand with you to the end but you can't rely on me to make a shot. I'm sorry."

  "Not a problem, Theo," said Wes. "We'll just have to kill a few for you."

  Theo smiled. "Okay, then. Let's go."

  One of his other soldiers (was it Hugo?) reached for the door and whipped it open. A thunderous round of gunfire sounded and the man went flying backward in a hail of bullets.

  "Damn it!" Theo yelled. "Take them!" He led his team in low while the Security Force reloaded. They fired as many shots as they could. He thought they might have hit one or two agents, but he couldn't be sure. He pulled his men back quickly to the relative safety of the stairwell. Theo looked at the others. They had no way forward. The Security Force was prepared. There was nothing to hide behind in the hallway. All they could do was take potshots through the doorway until they ran out of ammo.

  "What do we do?" asked Wes.

  "We don't do anything, not yet." Theo scratched his head. He knew Kylee's troops were working their way up but he didn't know what condition they were in. If Kylee had been hurt or killed they would be in disarray. They might very well be coming up right underneath his group in the stairwell, which would do no good.

  He considered Wes's grenades. He wished there was some kind of flash bang, something that would give them an advantage without being so destructive. If they took out the hallway the top floor could collapse in on them. It might not be pleasant for Tiberius but it might also kill Theo and everyone with him.

  Just then he heard sounds of motion coming down the hall. "Someone's coming," he said. "Be ready."

  There was a grunt of exertion and then Michelle's body came flying through the door landing on the floor in a heap. Ryan screamed, a sound that chilled Theo to the bone. He saw his friend go running for the door, gun drawn. Theo moved as quickly as he could, but Wes got there first, tackling Ryan and pinning him to the ground.

  "Let me go!" Ryan screamed. "Let me go!"

  "You'll die out there!" Theo yelled.

  "I don't care! I want to kill them all."

  Theo turned to Wes. He was trying hard not to see Michelle's twisted body in his peripheral vision. "Wes, keep him down. He's no good to us like this."

  What the hell was he going to do? Theo was completely out of options. Throwing Michelle's body at them like that… Tiberius wanted to disarm them emotionally, and remind them that he was in control. Maybe he was. Maybe this had been a giant fool's errand. For the first time in a while, Theo thought of his family. His real bed in his real room in his real home. He sat down on the step and stared at the blank wall across from him while Ryan kicked and struggled.

  He was just so tired. Tired from being awake for so many hours, but even more tired on a deeper level from everything he had experienced the past year. He'd had enough.

  A new spate of gunfire caught Theo's attention. It was like those he'd heard periodically, but this one was much closer. He could hear the sound coming through the open door. Curiosity motivated him to his feet. "Can someone get me a visual?" One of the men crawled to the opening and moved his head out and back.

  "It's Kylee, Theo, sir," the man said. "It's the army! They're fighting the Security Force!"

  Theo snapped back into action. "We can't go into the hall without risking hitting the other rebels or them hitting us. I want careful shots taken at the floor between the Security Force and us. Draw their attention. Let's help our army win this."

  Theo's men did as he ordered. Ryan had collapsed into a weeping mess draped over Michelle's body. That was fine for now. At least he wasn't getting himself killed, and Wes was now free to keep shooting.

  It was a confusing few minutes. His men fired sporadic shots at the floor. The Security Force and the rebel army exchanged far more gunfire. Finally, the shooting sounds slowed, becoming less frequent and less intense, before they ceased altogether.

  Silence surrounded them like a heavy blanket, deadening thought and emotion. Time slowed. Finally, Theo dared speak. "Kylee?" he shouted. "Kylee!" We're across the hall in the stairwell. Can we come out?"

  He froze, petrified that he might not hear Kylee's voice in response. Then there it was: "Theo! Come on out here!"

  He walked out. He still felt a little dizzy from his wound, but nothing would stop him from seeing Kylee again. There she was, at the opposite end of a hall filled with smoke, dust and bodies. They ran to each other, past the shredded carpet and chunks of violated concrete from his team's contribution to the fight, and embraced in the center.

  "You're hurt!" she cried.

  "It's nothing," he said.

  "Bull. You're bleeding. Your arm is hanging there. We need to get you help."

  "I can't. Not yet. There's one more thing to do. You know that."

  She nodded. "I know."

  "How did you get here?" he asked.

  "It wasn't easy," she said. "We were pinned down for a while in the parking garage. Outnumbered, for a while, at least."

  "How did you make it through?" Theo asked.

  "We won, I think, through sheer grit and force. Thank God for Joseph." She indicated the big Austrian, who was standing and talking with Andrew. He was wounded, but it looked superficial. Kylee cast her eyes downward. "We lost a lot of people."

  "We had losses too."

  She looked up suddenly, worried. "Where are Bill and Ryan?"

  Theo sighed. He explained what had happened with Bertier and how Bill had knocked them both down to the beach and out of sight. "I don't know if he's okay," Theo admitted.

  She brushed back her hair. "And Ry?"

  Theo opened his mouth to speak, to tell her about the horror that had transpired, when he was interrupted. "Oh hell," said a weary voice, "did I miss all the fun?"

  Bill was leaning against the door at the end of the hallway from which Kylee's army had arrived. He was bleeding from several places. His face was, once again, a puffy mess. He had dark bruises on his throat.

  "Oh, God, Bill." She and Theo ran over to him.

  "Hey, hey, don't worry about me! I'm fine. Just a few…horribly painful scratches is all." He winced.

  "And Bertier?" Theo asked.

  "Dead as a doornail, my friend." Bill's voice was jovial, though tired, but he did not smile. Just then, Jamie saw him and came running over. She threw her arms around him. "Easy, easy, baby!" he cried out. "I'm not a well man!" Finally a crack of a smile showed.

  Kylee turned back to Theo. "You were starting to say about Ryan?"

  Theo's shoulders slumped. His eyes watered. "Follow me."

  He led the three of them to the stairwell. There, Ryan continued to weep over Michelle's body.

  "Oh, no." said Jamie.

  She and Kylee moved closer to Michelle. Bill came around and tried to gently move Ryan off.

  "Come on, Ry," he said. "Come on, buddy. It's okay man."

  "It's not okay!" Ryan screamed. "Look what they did to her!"

  "Pretty much all of the people who were responsible for this are dead now, Ry," Bill said. "Come with us. She'll be okay here. When this is over, I promise we'll come back and take her out of here. Now we've gotta go face Tiberius."

  "No," said Theo.

  "What do you mean no?" asked Kylee.

  "I mean, no. You've all done enough. This is my job now."

  "Theo," said Bill, "don't be ridiculous. You can barely stand. Let's bring the army up there and shoot the devil in his big, fat head."

  "It has to be me," said Theo. "You need to get these people out of here and to safety. You know Tiberius's power. If you all come with it will be a massacre."

  "I don't understand," said Kylee. "How can you win if you're so sure we'd all lose?"

  "I don't know," he said. "I just know that this is a fight for me and me alone. Just give me one last chance to speak to the people."

  "One last…" Kylee gasped. "You don't think you're going to survive this, do you? This is insane, Theo. Insane."

  "This army needs its leader," he said. "I can't risk any of you. If I don't come back in an hour…Wes has grenades. Take this place down."

  He walked back down the hall. The eyes of the army followed him. Standing by the door he knew would take him to the staircase to the top floor, Theo spoke.

  "People of Atlantic Island, you have done an amazing thing tonight. You have made it possible for this country and its people to be free. You have done right by the people who died in the tragedy of the Event, like my friend Mark, and you have done right by all those who died in the avoidable tragedies brought about since by Paul Tiberius and his men.

  "You have helped me to avenge the deaths of Sam Lucas and so many others who died in the gladiatorial arena, in the prisons, the camp, or here in this Palace. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Now, I want you to go. Go out and be my representatives in the world. Let the people know as they awaken that they don't have to be afraid anymore."

  He pulled Kylee to him and kissed her. When he pulled back, her eyes were full of tears. "I love you," he said to her.

  She hesitated, preparing a plea, then stopped herself. "I love you, too," she said.

  "Listen to Kylee as you have done so far, and as you have done for me," he said. "Listen to my friends." He looked at Bill and Ryan and smiled. "Listen to each other. You are the future of this nation."

  "What about you?" someone shouted. "Won't you lead us?"

  "I hope so," Theo said. "I guess fate will decide. Now I have a dictator to overthrow. Thank you all for everything… Thank you for giving me a purpose."

  With that, before there could be more protests, he turned and opened the door behind him. He looked back one last time, making eye contact with Kylee. Then the door shut, cutting him off from his people.

  Kylee took a moment to compose herself. "Alright people," she said, "It's time to go. We're going to retrace our steps down and collect those we've lost."

  "What about Theo?" a voice called out. "Will he be back?"

  "I don't know," she said. "We have to move now."

  Chapter 35

  Theo heard the door close behind him. One flight of stairs separated him from the small lobby that had once divided Tiberius's and Lucas's offices. He thought there was a chance that he would be killed as soon as he stepped into the lobby. If that was how it was going to be, so be it. He had come too far to turn back, and he was out of options. This part of the script couldn't be written in advance. It had to play out in real-time, come what may.

  He wasn't positive he had any ammo in his gun. He'd forgotten to check before he left the others. The firearm was held in his left hand. His right arm was as useless as if it had been amputated. Maybe eventually it would be. He certainly didn't think it would ever work the way it had.

  Black shadows danced in and out of the edges of his vision. Theo knew he was tired, but there was something more than that wrong with him. The shirt wrapped around his wound was drenched with blood. He wondered how long he would be able to stay on his feet.

  Theo took the stairs slowly, conserving his energy. He was prepared for the possibility of Tiberius or one of his soldiers bursting out of the door at the top of the stairs and coming after him. If that happened, he'd run straight up, and maybe toss them down to the bottom. It wasn't much of a plan but his addled brain refused to give him anything else. Conserve your energy, it said. Take your time. All in good time, Theo.

  He thought maybe that was Sam Lucas's voice speaking to him, or at least his own construction of the mayor. It was nice that he still had a friend with him. This made him think of Kylee and the rest. He hoped they were on their way to safety. Even with Bertier defeated, he knew a portion of the surviving Security Force would continue to fight as long as Tiberius remained in control. The rebels were tired and injured. They needed a break. They needed a victory, and Theo wanted more than anything to give it to them.

  Three more steps to the top. So nobody was going to attack him here after all. Theo was confused. Tiberius must know he would be coming. Why give him the chance to get situated in the lobby? None of this made any sense, but then again he was dealing with a man whose ego and one-sided sense of right and wrong had driven him insane.

  Two more steps remaining. Theo tightened his grip on the gun. Climbing had been so difficult with his right arm throwing him off balance and the gun in the hand that should be gripping the rail. Now, if he didn't trip and send himself back down the stairwell in a heap, he needed to have his weapon at the ready.

  On the final step, Theo took a deep breath. He was ready, as ready as one could be. Doing the best one could do in impossible circumstances. That's what he had come to believe defined a hero, and it was the code he would continue to live by now, even if he might not live much longer. He let out the air he had been holding. He went to reach for the door with his right hand, and laughed when his arm didn't move. So much for preparing his gun. He maneuvered the weapon under his left arm, pinning it to his side, and turned the knob with his left hand.