Free Rebellion by Stephanie Diaz Page B

together. But he’s right. This is still the best plan we have—the only plan. It was always going to be a risk, every step of the way. Whatever Darren thinks he found out about Charlie’s plan could be false information. We might show up to an empty city, or one with ships poised and ready to blast our hulls with bullets. We might show up when everyone’s leaving and slip in among them just fine, only to be recognized once we’re on board their ships. We could be discovered any time.
    But we have to take this chance. We have to try for an advantage.
    “Fine,” I say.
    Beechy’s expression softens. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you. But I really am confident we’ll be okay. If we run into problems, it won’t be because of fuel.”
    “Yeah, you’re right.” I move past him to head up the cargo lift. “Let’s get out of here and get this over with.”
    The clump of his boots tells me he’s following.
    At the top of the lift, I walk through the small cargo bay into the aisle between the passenger seats. There are eight on either side of me, in rows of two. All the seats are taken. Paley’s sitting up front, looking a bit lost without her sister.
    To my right, Mal’s settling into the front seat, struggling to pull the straps over his shoulders with one hand. He’s wearing his armor again.
    “Let’s get buckled in, everyone,” Beechy says, moving past me in the aisle and through the door into the cockpit. He and Skylar are piloting the ship.
    I slip into the window seat Logan was saving for me, in the row behind Mal.
    “What did Beechy say?” Logan asks.
    “He said not to worry,” I say, pulling the belt straps over my shoulders and clicking them into place. “So, I’m trying not to.”
    There’s a rumble as the ship engines start. Behind us, the cargo lift slides up into the hovercraft, sealing the exit.
    Skylar’s voice rings through the ship over the intercomm: “Hang tight, everyone. We are cleared for departure.”
    Logan slips his fingers through mine, tightly. Like he’s afraid something could still separate us, making one of us leave while the other stayed behind.
    Through the window, I see Sandy, Fiona, and the other rebels who aren’t coming with us standing near the entrance to the port. A couple of them wave as we lift off the ground. But their faces are tense, worried.
    For an instant, I wish whoever messed with the fuel supply had leaked all of it, so that we wouldn’t be able to fly away. But staying here won’t save us. Charlie and the other Developers won’t stop killing for selfish motives, not until someone takes away their power, their voice, their weapons. As long as Charlie is still able to kill, I could lose friends again. I could lose Logan.
    I might not care whether I survive, but I do care what happens to him.
    *   *   *
    Morning sunlight streams over the snow-topped mountains when we emerge from the compound tunnels. I half expected the world changed entirely in the past week. But the valley is exactly as I remember it from before, with crooked, gnarled trees along the riverbank, and the river full of rapids.
    The sky looks the same too. The acid shield a thousand miles above us is faint in the daylight, a shimmering, pink bubble enclosing Kiel. Commander Charlie put it back up after he realized Beechy and I wouldn’t turn his ship around and bring back his bomb. But the shield can’t do much for us anymore; enough acid got into the atmosphere in the short amount of time the shield was down. Still, I’m relieved to see it shimmering up there.
    As Skylar guides our ship higher, we rise above the mountain peaks. I feel exposed in the open sky. Maybe Charlie’s officials know where we’ve been hiding, and they’ve been waiting for us to emerge.
    But no ships appear with guns firing. No one blasts our hull to bits, and Skylar makes no mention of contacts on our radar.
    No one knows we’re on the move yet.
    *   *   *
    The KIMO facility sits deeper