Sunset Rising

“How do you do that?” he asked.

“Do what?”

“See in the dark. I almost killed myself getting out here.”

“It’s not completely dark.”

He was doing sit-ups, and I fell into rhythm beside him. We did about fifty of those and then flipped over for push-ups.

“I missed our sparring session last night,” I said.

“Get home on time tonight, and I’ll let you try to beat me again.” I could almost hear the smile on his face.

“One of these days I will beat you.”

“There’s no doubt in my mind that’s true.”

“I don’t see why we have to wait until tonight. Why not now?”

“Because I can’t see in the dark.”

“Then you’ll learn a new skill, too. Come on. How many bourge know how to fight in the dark?”

He stood. “All right.” He swung his arms wide around him, testing to see if he was within touching distance of anything. I stood up and threw a punch at his face, stopping an inch from his nose. He reached up and batted my hand away, but he was too slow to block my blow. “Well, this is going to be one sided,” he said wryly.

I smiled with satisfaction. “It does help level the playing field.”

I brought my leg up into a side kick and again he was too slow to ward me off. I followed through with a punch to his torso, then a kick to his other side. He almost blocked my last kick.

“Why aren’t you trying to hit me back?” I asked.

“Because I can’t see you and I don’t want to actually hit you. But I like this. I heard your foot come off the floor and had to gauge where it would hit in order to block it.”

The lights came on then, and the bong bongs tolled the start of another workday. I saw that Jack still had his shirt off and was covered in sweat. Without warning he came at me. I raised my arm to ward off any blow he might throw at me, but he grabbed my arm and brought it behind my back, pi

“You’re pretty good when the lights are on.” We were only inches apart, and his blue eyes twinkled.

“I know.” He laughed and released me. “I thought we could go down to the sixth level for breakfast this morning.”

“I don’t want to run into Reyes.”

He raised an eyebrow at my statement, but didn’t address it. “I want to see Bron. It’s okay. I can go down on my own.”

“Why do you want to see Bron?”

“I kind of have a plan, and I need to see if it’s going to work out.”

“Are you going to share your plan with me? I thought we were in this together.”

“We had a good talk last night, Su

“You mean you might have members down here?” This was huge news.

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

“How do you take control? How fast can it happen?”

“I don’t know. I’m on the run from Holt, so it’s a long shot that Liberty will accept me as head. It’s an even longer shot that they’ll accept an alliance with the Pit, but if everyone is as loyal to me as Bron seems to be, then I might have a chance.”

“Ok, I’m coming with you.” I was about to put my hat on and walk out the door when I realized I still needed to color his hair. “I forgot about the coal.”

I retrieved the coal from the cupboard and turned to find Jack already sitting in the chair waiting. He was just as anxious as I was to see where this might go. I darkened his hair as quickly as I could without making a mess.

“Your vest,” he said.

I ran into the bedroom and put it on under my t-shirt. Finally ready, we left the apartment. We found Bron in her usual spot.

“Good morning, Bron,” Jack said. She looked pleased to see him.

“How are you, Su

“Have you heard anything about my dad?” I asked.

She shook her head, but the look of pain that flickered across her features was unmistakable.

“We were hoping to talk to you about something. Is this a safe spot?” Jack asked.

I raised an eyebrow at Jack. He wasn’t wasting any time getting to the point.

“It’s safe at the moment. The other guards on this level are opening up the common room right now.”

“Have my parents sent out any messages from Liberty since the wedding?”

Bron looked from Jack to me and back again. She motioned us to a quiet corner in the hallway. It gave us more privacy.

“No one has heard from them. Word is the president has them under house arrest. I’m terribly sorry,” Bron said.

“Then I’m going to assume control of Liberty. Is there access to the mainframe down here?” He took his tablet out of his back pocket. “I haven’t been able to get a signal.”

“There’s no reception down here. Too much rock.”

“How do the cameras work then? How do you communicate with the other guards?”

“The cameras and televisions are all hardwired to the mainframe. I communicate with the other guards down here using this.” She unclipped a small appliance from her belt. “It’s like a walkie-talkie. It only has a short range.”

“Then I need to ask you a big favor. Can you help get my messages out to Liberty? I assume you have access to the mainframe when you’re in the Dome?”

A huge smile crossed her face. “Yes, sir. But I’ll need your verification codes to make it legitimate.” She unhooked her communicator from her belt and handed it to Jack.

“I can trust you with this, right?”

“Yes, sir,” she said proudly.

Jack took her communicator, typed in the information, and handed it back to her. “How many other guards down here belong to Liberty?”

“I’d say about a hundred, give or take a few.”

My eyes opened wide at her admission. There were guards in the Pit on our side?

“Are they all as dedicated as you?”

“The ones I know are, but I can’t vouch for the others. I think anyone who belongs to Liberty must be dedicated.”

“Are they supportive of the people down here in the Pit?”

“I’m not sure I follow, sir.”

Jack shot me an apologetic look. “Do the Liberty guards on duty down here hate the urchins or like them?”

Bron looked taken aback by his question. She looked at me, maybe to see my reaction to his statement. But I always assumed the guards hated us. Finding out some of them liked us was a revelation for me.

“Anybody who believes in Liberty also believes in equality,” Bron said, her voice indignant. “Life down here is far from equal. We do what we can to help the people in the Pit.”

“Would you join with them? If there was a revolt, whose side would you be on?”

“The right side.” Jack looked pleased with her answer.

“I want to join the Pit with Liberty and start training an army—would you support that?”

“Absolutely,” she said without hesitation. “Most of the people I know would feel the same way.”

“That’s what I’m counting on. We’ll need a place to meet and start training. Are the common rooms the only places with cameras?”

Bron nodded.

“If a camera was broken, how long would it take to be replaced?”

“The last time one was broken it took two months to get a new one replicated.”

“Let’s get the camera in the fourth-floor common room broken. Once our numbers start to grow we may need more rooms, but we’ll do it strategically.”

“Why not the sixth level?” I asked. “I know more people there.”

“Which is why we should stay away from it. They’ll expect you to return home,” Jack said.

“He’s right. They’ve already done a preliminary search here, and a camera being knocked out on this level might raise suspicion,” Bron said. “I should tell you that we do expect a more thorough search of the Pit within the next day or two.”

Jack thought for a minute. “Can we arrange for Liberty guards to conduct the search down here?”