Deceit Read online

  The sun was starting to rise, when I broke out of the jungle. I could see the huge sand dune glistening, as it sat between me and the open desert. I was relieved to see footprints.

  I knew the prints had to be fresh. If they had been made more than a few hours ago, then they would have been swept away with the wind. I walked quickly forward. My legs were almost numb, but I somehow managed to climb the dune and stumble back down the other side. I followed the trail of footsteps that I hoped would lead to Natasha. I stopped after a little while and pulled a blanket out of my bag and tied it to the waist of my pants at the back.

  I walked ahead and looked behind me. The blanket was pulling over the sand and smoothing out the footsteps which Natasha and I had been leaving in the sand. The guards would be able to trace us to the dune, but no further. I walked quickly. The open desert wasn’t a place I wanted to spend much time in if I could help it.

  It took me a few hours of effort-driven walking, before I saw a small speck on the horizon. I let my legs fall into a steady jog, as I realized that the bright red speck meant it really was Natasha I was following.

  “Wait!” I called out, when I was sure that she would be able to hear me.

  The speck stopped. “Sarah?” Natasha’s voice called out over the distance. “What are you doing here?” she started walking towards me. I stopped in relief and fell to the ground, so that my weight wasn’t on my feet any more.

  “What were you thinking leaving me in the jungle?” she demanded when she’d reached me. “I told you that it was my choice. Why did you take Nathan?”

  “Natasha, we don’t have time for this,” I said a little breathlessly. “They have Nathan.”

  “I know they do. You handed him over,” she said with her hands landing firmly on her hips.

  “No, you don’t understand,” I tried to explain. “Nathan was going to get the chip and meet me outside, but he never showed up. I checked and they told me he’d received his verdict. I went to get my dad and they’ve locked him back up. I need your help. I need you to turn off the microchips, so that we can break into the city and get them out.”

  “You want to break into The City of Hope, so that you can rescue the guy that you handed over to them?” Natasha asked with her voice full of doubt. She looked at me like I was crazy. I couldn’t blame her. I couldn’t see myself, but I could imagine what a mess I looked. I’d been tirelessly walking for hours to reach her.

  “I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. I need to save him, before the city hurts him.”

  “Why?”

  “I found out why my father was locked up. I’ve been handing people over to the council and thinking that I’ve been doing the right thing all of this time, but really I’ve been trying to free a traitor. I cannot let Nathan die because of the mistakes that my father and I have made.”

  She nodded. I could tell that she believed me. I think any person would have believed me, though. The unfaltering truth of my statement could be heard by anybody who wished to listen. “Okay,” she said. “I was close to cracking the chips, so maybe I can do it. But I’m going to need one to test.”

  “Call me a guinea pig and sign me up,” I grinned at her, as I lowered my neck, so that she could see the scar that had been left on my skin from the implant.

  CHAPTER 8

  Nathan

  The room was never silent. There was a quiet hum in the air from the servers, which just went on continuously. I wondered whether over time I would get used to it. I wondered whether the girl, who had since introduced herself as Bella, could even hear it any more. It certainly didn’t seem so when she fell asleep without a care in the world and I was left to my thoughts and the annoying hum.

  I walked away from the small room which had been fitted with two single beds and one double. I wondered whether there were meant to be four people working the room. I wondered whether the third and fourth person would join us in our lifetime or whether they would find my skeleton in a hundred years. That thought was chilling. Bella had been on her own since she was sixteen and she was clearly in her mid-thirties now. How did she not go crazy on her own?

  The lights in the server room went on; when they sensed that I’d walked in. I thought that was pretty cool. We’d had some electrical lighting at the camp once, but the resistance had made it too risky, so we’d switched back to firelight at night.

  I walked over to a small metal table and picked up the slate like object, which came to life in my hands. I pressed my finger down on the screen and unlocked the device.

  Bella had told me everything in basic training. She’d explained how the devices worked and what I could do with them. They were wired into the main system database. They could tell me anything I wanted to know and I had the freedom to look, because what was I going to do with the information? I was trapped down there. There was only one way out and Bella had informed me that the elevator could only be called from the level above.

  I worked my way through the system until I reached the lock up logs. I wanted to check that Sarah’s father had been released. I wanted to make sure that she, at least, was going to be happy. There were no records of anybody being released, though.

  I looked through the list of names, until I found one with the same age and description that Sarah had given me for her father. I clicked on his name and his files popped up.

  I finished reading them and I put the tablet down. My heart was beating so hard that I could hear the thundering of my pulse in my ears. Sarah’s father had been the traitor who had led to my father’s death. I’d walked into the city willingly to free the man who had killed my father and both of Natasha’s parents.

  My blood felt cold, which was strange since my cheeks were burning. I couldn’t just sit there. I couldn’t just accept that this was my fate. I had to get out. Sarah was all alone out there. I’d promised to meet her and I hadn’t. She didn’t even have her traitor father. I smashed my hand down on the table in anger. It wasn’t even a choice I made. The anger had just built up to a point where it had to be released.

  The sound of my fist against the table echoed around the room. The bedroom door clicked and I turned my gaze to Bella, who had obviously just been woken up by the noise. She rubbed her eyes in a tired kind of way and looked at me disapprovingly.

  “Acting like that won’t change anything,” she mumbled and then she closed the bedroom door again, having delivered her message and being too tired to wait for my reply, had I had one.

  I waited until I was sure that she’d be asleep again, before I started working on the touchscreen device. I needed to work out an escape plan. I needed to reroute the elevator so that I could get back to the ground floor. I needed to get to Sarah because I’d promised her that I would.

  I knew that it wasn’t much of a plan. I knew the council could deactivate my chip at any given moment. I knew that it would take a miracle to actually make my plan work, but all I could do was hope. The alternative was to accept the hand that fate had dealt me. The alternative was to stay in the underground prison for the rest of my life with a woman who got grouchy when her sleep was disturbed.

  I managed to pull of the electrical plans for the building. They were complicated, but I knew that I’d be able to work them out with enough time. I could feel my heart racing, as my eyes scoured over the information in front of them. I had been an outcast for my entire life, but I’d never felt more alive.

  I looked around at the servers and then back at the plans. The thought of damaging them to come to mind, but I couldn’t be sure how the chips would react to sudden interruption.

  No, I had to keep it simple, I reminded myself, as I tapped on the screen and a green light indicated that the elevator was on its way down to me.

  DISCOVER MORE BOOKS BY THIRD COUSINS

  CLICK HERE

  COPYRIGHT

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public na
mes are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  REQUESTING PUBLISHING RIGHTS & ORDERING INFORMATION

  For Publishing Rights Acquisitions and Quantity sales please contact us using the information provided below. NOTE: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, libraries and others.

  Speedy Publishing LLC

  40 Main Street, Newark

  Delaware 19711

  (888) 248 4521

  [email protected]

  DIGITAL EDITION

  Any and all product names referenced within this book are the trademark of their respective owners. None of these owners have sponsored, authorized, endorsed, or approved this book.

  ISBN: 9781683681007