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My boots land in powdered snow with a soft crunch. I take a last look at the second floor ledge, memorize where this hospital building is on the street, then tuck my hair into my coat and flatten myself against the wall.
The streets are empty and silent at this hour. I wait against the side of the building for a minute before I step out. Come on, Kaede. My breath comes out in short bursts of steam. My eyes scour the nooks and crannies around me, checking for danger. But I’m all alone. You wanted me to meet you out here? Well, I’m here.
“Talk to me,” I whisper under my breath as I walk alongside the building. My eyes search for street patrols, but no one’s out here.
Suddenly I pause. There’s a subtle shadow crouched in one of the nearby alleys. I tense up. “Come out,” I whisper loud enough for the person to hear me. “I know you’re there.”
Kaede materializes out of the shadows, then waves me over. “Walk with me,” she whispers back. “Hurry.” She scurries off into a narrow alley hidden behind a row of snow-laden bushes. We go down the alleyway until it crosses a wider street, which Kaede turns onto sharply. I hurry after her. My eyes search every corner. I gauge all the spots where I can shimmy up to a higher floor in case anyone tries to take me by surprise. Every hair on my neck stands on end, rigid with tension.
Kaede gradually slows her walk until we’re side by side. She’s wearing the same pants and boots that she had on during the attempt earlier in the day, but has switched out her military jacket for a wool cloak and scarf. Her face is scrubbed clean of the black stripe.
“All right, be fast about this,” I say to her. “I don’t want to leave June for too long. What are you doing here?” I make sure to keep a good distance between us, just in case she decides to get happy with a knife or something. We do seem to be alone, I’ll give her that much, but I still make sure we stay on a main street where I can get away if I need to. A few Colonies workers hurry past us, aglow from the lights of building ads. Kaede’s eyes glitter with near-frantic anxiety, a look that’s completely foreign on her face.
“I couldn’t climb up to your room,” she says. The scarf around her mouth muffles her words, and she pushes it down impatiently. “Damn guards would hear me. That’s why you’re the Runner, not me. I swear that I’m not here to harm your precious June. If she’s just by herself up there, she’s gonna be fine. We’ll be quick.”
“Did you follow us down through the tunnel?”
Kaede nods. “Managed to clear enough rubble away to squeeze through.”
“Where are the others?”
She pulls her gloves on tighter, blows warm air on her hands, and mutters in disgust about the weather. “They’re not here. Just me. I needed to warn you.”
A sick feeling rises in my stomach. “About what? Is it Tess?”
Kaede stops what she’s doing to poke me hard in the ribs. “Assassination was botched.” She holds up two hands before I can interrupt. “Yeah, yeah, I know you’re already aware of this. A lot of Patriots have been arrested. Some of them got away too—our Tess did, at least. She ran with a few of our Pilots and Runners. Pascao and Baxter too.” I spit out a curse. Tess. I feel a sudden compulsion to chase her, to make sure she’s safe—and then I remember the last thing she said to me. Kaede plunges on as we continue to walk. “I don’t know where they are now. But here’s what you don’t know. I didn’t even know, until you and June stopped the assassination. Jordan—the Runner girl, you remember, right?—uncovered all this info from a comp drive and handed it off to one of our Hackers.” She takes a deep breath, stops, and turns her head down to the ground. Her voice’s usual strength fades. “Day, Razor played all of us. He lied to the Patriots, then handed them over to the Republic.”
I halt in my walk. “What?”
“Razor told us that the Colonies hired us to kill the Elector and start a revolution,” Kaede says. “But that’s not true. Found out on the day of the assassination that the Republic’s Senate is sponsoring the Patriots.” She shakes her head. “Do you believe that? The Republic hired the Patriots to assassinate Anden.”
I’m silent. Stunned. June’s words echo in my mind, how she’d told me that Congress dislikes their new Elector, how she thought Razor was lying. The things he’s told us don’t add up, she’d said.
“Blindsided all of us—except for Razor,” Kaede says when I don’t respond. We start walking again. “The Senators want Anden dead. They figured they could use us and pin the blame on us too.”
My blood is racing so fast I can barely hear myself speak. “Why would Razor sell out the Patriots like that? Hasn’t he been with them for a decade? And I thought Congress was trying not to cause a revolution.”
Kaede slumps her shoulders and lets out a breath of steam. “He got caught working for the Patriots a couple of years ago. So he made a deal with Congress: He leads the Patriots into killing Anden, the young revolutionary spitfire, and Congress forgets about his traitorous ties. At the end of it all, Razor gets to be the new Elector—and with you and June working for him, he comes off like the people’s hero or something. The public would think that the Patriots took over the government, when it’s really only the Republic all over again. Razor doesn’t want the United States to be restored—he just wants to preserve himself. And he’ll join whatever side’s most convenient to achieve that.”
