Creators(63)

I knocked on the door to Terrance’s room to make sure Richard wasn’t in there before I barged in and began my search. The little pest enjoyed going into his brother’s room and messing up the work that Regan or I did only to call us incompetent later. Satisfied that I was alone, I quickly opened and then closed the door behind me.

Terrance’s skittish behavior when questioned by James proved to me that the stolen map had to have been in his room. He, no doubt, took it just because he thought he could. That was the only reason he ever seemed to do anything. But maybe it was something else, some pathetic attempt at trying to get his father’s attention. I had been assigned to the Harper family for more than a week, and I had only ever seen his father during the bidding.

Searching the room felt impossible, knowing I had very little time and couldn’t leave any trace of my actions. I had no training for this kind of work. I had grown up in a compound and not in my father’s army. He had seen to that. Which meant that after throwing aside the blanket to look under the bed, I had to make sure it was put back into place without a single wrinkle. Every drawer I opened had to be closed, and every book I moved off the shelf had to be put back.

And the clock was ticking.

I ran my hands through my hair, spinning around in a small circle, searching for any sign that something was out of place. And then I remembered finding Tess of the D’Urbervilles. It seemed like a lifetime ago that Henry and I had discovered the novel. The injured girl had hidden it under a loose floorboard. While the floors of the headquarters were made of marble tiles and not wood, I fell to my knees. I crawled around the room, running my hands over the smooth, cold surface looking for any imperfection.

After several minutes, my hand bumped against a loose tile in the corner of the room. I glance behind me to make sure I was alone, then pried the loose tile up. “Well, I’ll be damned,” I whispered.

I lifted the folded-up map from Terrance’s hiding place, then laid it across the floor and smoothed out the wrinkles. It was a map of the former United States of America, separated into East, West, and Isolationist territories. All of the compounds held by the council were marked on the map, most of them now covered in giant red x’s. These must be the compounds that had gone through The Great Reckoning.

The lightning storm inside of me flared up once more. The insatiable anger tossed and turned like the storm that separated Viola from her family in McNair’s book.

There was a wave of green on the map that stemmed from the Eastern coast and spilled almost all the way to where the council itself stood. I furrowed my brow as I ran my fingers across the color that soaked almost the entire map. What could it mean?

This was how far into our land the war had come. We were losing, and we were losing badly. There was almost nothing left of the Western sector. That was why the council had abandoned the compounds and murdered the naturals who lived in them. The council headquarters was all they had left—their stronghold. When that fell to the hordes of the Eastern army, it would all cease to exist.

We were running out of time.

The map outlined the country or, at least, what was left of it. It wasn’t the map my father wanted, but this was the map I desired. It would lead me to freedom.

I began to fold it up when the corner bent. There was a second map underneath the first one. I peeled back the top sheet to reveal a floor plan of the council’s headquarters. I placed the first map of the country on the floor and held the object of my father’s desire. Somewhere on this map was the fail-safe. Bringing the map closer to my face, I took it all in: meeting rooms, large banquet halls, the homes of creators, and then the places hidden to the eye—labs and control rooms located behind secret panels and camouflaged doors. How many secrets did the council have?

The doorknob to Terrance’s room began to twist. I scrambled frantically to fold the floor plan map and stick it in my pocket, but I didn’t have time to grab the U.S. map on the floor. When the door opened, my throat went dry. I looked up to find James staring down at me. All the tension that I held inside my body relaxed. A deep sigh shook me to my core.

It was only James.

James.

I was alone with James.

A smile danced across my face.

James narrowed his eyes and looked me up and down. Sizing me up. “What do you think you’re doing?” he barked. I jumped at the tone of his voice. “I asked you a question!”

I couldn’t open my mouth, couldn’t speak. I didn’t know how to react to this James. He snatched the map from the floor beside me, and his eyes burned with accusation. “Were you the one who took this?”