The Unpaired (The Pairings Book 3) Read online

  My finger smoothed over the screen before clicking PLAY.

  The camera remained still as sounds of movement filled my ears. Then a body came into view before sitting at the chair. He was in a sharp white suit with a navy blue tie. I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. Jarid sat further back. His hair was slicked behind his ears, and other than his cheekbones being more pronounced than I remembered, he looked just as I remembered him.

  A shaky breath spilled out of me as he locked eyes with the camera. He smirked, and my stomach flipped.

  Jarid was alive and well. He was also inside a BioPure-controlled city, and had done what he’d said he would. I couldn’t believe it. Relief washed over me as the video continued to play.

  “Lora.” His voice came from the video, but struck up so many memories. Most notably, the last one where I had seen him in Denver as he’d walked out of the rebel hideout and toward his new destiny. “I’ve missed you. I hope you have been receiving my messages.”

  I thought of Isra and frowned, wondering what messages from Jarid she had intercepted.

  “I’ve been doing everything that I said I would from inside BioPure,” he said, lifting his chin. “They were gracious enough to accept my deepest apologies for allowing the rebel agenda into my life.” He grimaced, and I wondered what he was talking about. He hated the corporations, or at least that was what I’d thought. He was supposed to have infiltrated BioPure, not become a part of their terrible machine. “Things are going well here. It’s all happening just like I said it would. They’ve made me a manager. Can you believe it? My job is to get their message out to rebels.”

  Rebels like me? Or like he used to be? Was I wrong about him infiltrating BioPure? Was he one of them now?

  He paused, glancing at his hands, which were resting on the desk, before speaking again. “All rebels need to take BioPure up on its amnesty. I’ve made good friends, people who have a lot in common with me, who see the world the same way. It’s not all work—I get to hang out with them outside BioPure, too. The monitoring isn’t nearly as bad as we thought it was when we were on the outside.” He looked down again as I tried to take in his words. He sounded brainwashed. What had they done to him? Had they memory-wiped him again? And, this time, changed him into someone else entirely?

  He chewed on his lip and made a point of looking at his hands. He almost appeared nervous about contacting me. Was he doing it against his will? Was there someone behind the camera, forcing him to try to get me to join the other side?

  Then I noticed his finger swirling on the desk in front of him. He made the same motions over and over as he relayed all the good things about being a part of BioPure. There was a distinct pause before he tapped his finger lightly and then started up the movement again. This time, I focused harder. He purposefully traced letters against the surface of the desk.

  It took me five tries to get the letters in a decipherable order.

  S-T-I-L-L-R-E-B-E-L

  He was still a rebel? Even after telling me how great BioPure treated him?

  His doublespeak started to made sense. He had put the message out there about the corporation’s agenda, but his real thoughts flowed out of his hands. He wanted to show me that he was okay, but he had to protect himself, as well. But he had accomplished his goal, which had been to infiltrate BioPure and work out a way to take them out from the inside.

  My heart raced in my chest as he spoke to me as if we were in the same room. I missed him more than I’d realized. I missed the security he offered when both he and Syeth were on the same side as me. With John gone and my parents having New Zero, I was desperate to have more allies, and people who could help rescue John and Marisha.

  Could Jarid help us from the inside? If he was a manager, maybe that made him higher up than Arnold, and he could find out where the transport trains were located and when they were leaving.

  “Lora, please get in touch with me. It’s been too long, and I want to be sure you’re okay. Because of my position in the company, I’m authorized to meet with rebels in neutral territory. And…” he paused, smirking into the camera. I shivered, remembering that look coming from him each time we had been together in New Manhattan. “I want to see you again. I’ll do anything to make that happen. You can contact me at this email address. It’s encrypted, and I’m expecting to hear from you soon.” He held up a tablet with a picture of his electronic information.

  The video stopped on that frame. Jarid’s eyes peeked over the top of his tablet, his eyes boring into mine. With the lack of sound coming from the video, my breathing was louder in my ears. I rechecked the hallway, and saw it was still empty.

  I didn’t need to watch the video again since I had a clear memory of it, but I did anyway—if only to feel like Jarid was with me again. While this wasn’t a message from John, I couldn’t help feeling relief that Jarid had somehow found a way to contact me. On the second watch, I didn’t find any new information—not that I’d thought I would—but I focused on his spelling on the desk again. It seemed so strange that that was all he wanted to tell me. Maybe he didn’t trust the video to get into my hands.

  I had to contact him to understand what his plan entailed.

  When the video ended once more, I tucked my legs closer to me, staring into Jarid’s frozen eyes. What if I did contact him? I couldn’t imagine that the email address he’d given me was a fake or would get me into trouble. He had planned out a way to get in contact with me through dangerous channels. I doubted he would be a manager or in the corporation for long if he was caught as a spy, but the fact that he was in this position had to mean he’d been making smart decisions and doing what had to be done in order to be trusted.

  I pulled up a blank message and stared at the cursor. If I did meet Jarid, I wasn’t going back into the city. It had to be on my own terms, and in rebel territory. Walking into that city again was asking to get captured.

  I typed out a request for him to meet me at a park on the edge of rebel territory. I didn’t have the means to send a video message and encrypt it in the way he had, so I just had to trust my gut on this.

  I’d just glanced at the SEND button when Isra’s face appeared in my vision. Her scowl and warning about Jarid echoed in my mind. I didn’t believe he was a traitor, but she’d had a lot more experience and time as a rebel built up in an effort to understand communications between BioPure and us. She would never agree to let me send the email, and if I gave it to her, I had no idea if she would expose Jarid to the wolves.

  I deleted the email and closed out the window. Pulling out the thumb drive, I made a promise to myself to figure out a way to contact Jarid soon. But not tonight.

  My eyelids started to droop. I needed a clear head before I did anything.

  When I got back to the room, Syeth’s light snores filled the space. Our twin-sized beds were pushed together, so it was a slow process crawling onto the mattress next to him without him waking up. The thumb drive was like a beacon asking for me to get caught talking to someone over enemy lines. I tucked it in the pillowcase and laid my head down.

  Syeth stirred, but didn’t fully wake up.

  Even though I closed my eyes, my mind remained more awake than ever. I had no idea what to do with the information Jarid had sent to me or who to tell. Arnold had given the drive to me, and without alerting anyone else. Jarid hadn’t mentioned telling Syeth, or would he assume I would?

  I wondered how he’d known I’d be coming to the city, or who to contact in order to get the thumb drive to me. So many worries and questions flooded my mind that I wasn’t able to fall asleep until I saw a sliver of the sun cutting through the sky outside my window.

  When I woke the next day, I had no idea what time it was, but I was alone. The memory of Jarid’s message popped into my mind, and I fumbled for the thumb drive that was still tucked into the pillowcase under me. I pulled out my hand and opened it in front of me. The drive tumbled to the bed, leaving a shallow line in the shape of t
he edge cut across my palm. It was the most important information I had received about Jarid, and I wasn’t going to let anyone see it until I was sure they would help me instead of trying to talk me out of contacting him.

  Syeth didn’t feel as Isra did, but if he knew for sure that Jarid was inside BioPure, would he think his brother was a traitor, too?

  I couldn’t keep this a secret from Jarid’s twin, though. The message had been for me, but Syeth and I were a team. We were nothing without trust. Showing him the message might help me figure out how to get in touch with Jarid.

  The door to the bathroom was open, and Syeth wasn’t anywhere in our studio apartment. I walked into our kitchen area and touched the screen of my phone.

  Syeth hadn’t texted me, probably assuming I would sleep for a while longer.

  I went into the refrigerator and took out our filtered water jug before pouring myself a glass. I’d almost finished it before the door burst open.

  Syeth stood there in his Unpaired uniform, and his eyes were wild. He almost looked relieved that I was up. “I have to tell you something.”

  “I do, too. Yesterday, Ar—”

  “We’re going to the prison.”

  “What?”

  Syeth smirked. “When Arnold told you about those who were captured, I realized what it meant; two of them were commanders. Isra was planning a raid on the prison tomorrow. This is it, Lora. This is how we get John back.”

  My stomach lurched. “Isra is letting me go?”

  “I didn’t exactly ask, but it doesn’t matter. I already have a team together, and no one is stopping us. Get dressed. The strategy meeting takes place in about fifteen minutes. We’re going to have to run, but it’s going to be so worth it.”

  I sprinted to my closet and slipped on a thick pair of fatigues and a black long-sleeved shirt. Then I tucked the drive into my pocket and threw my hair into a ponytail before we left the apartment.

  Chapter Eleven

  On the way to the Unpaired bunker, Syeth filled me in. “I wanted to let you sleep, so I headed over to the bunker to check in for the morning. The others were all preparing for the raid, but this was too important for you to miss,” he said, smirking at me. “I hope you don’t mind me barging in like that. We can leave it to them to find John and Marisha if you want.”

  “Not at all.” All the fatigue floated away from my body as adrenaline pumped through me. I wouldn’t rely on anyone else to help my father and Marisha. I was tired of being a passive member of the rebel team. And besides that, from the conversation from the other day, I knew Isra wasn’t going to make finding scientists a priority.

  “If I’d left without telling you, I know you’d never forgive me. They’re keeping all communications silent—because of the other day—but this is too important for me to keep the secret from you.”

  It was hard to ignore the twisting in my stomach at not telling him about Jarid’s message, but it also wasn’t the time to open up about how I’d kept a secret from him. Jarid hadn’t mentioned Syeth at all, and that video message had firmly wedged me between them once again. Once we had John and Marisha back, then Syeth and I could decide if Jarid was trustworthy or not. I wanted to trust him and reunite our families, but that would have to happen later.

  When we reached the parking garage entrance, the door to the bunker was already open. Unpaired soldiers huddled outside, fully geared up and ready to go. We didn’t get any looks as we pushed through to the bunker.

  “This seems like it’s happening quickly,” I said.

  “As Arnold said, there’s a transport to New York. We’re trying to head them off before they depart.”

  “Isra is okay with this?” I asked as we descended the stairs. Five Unpaired jogged up the other side of the stairwell toward the waiting crew outside. I hoped we weren’t too late to jump into the action.

  “I didn’t exactly tell her,” Syeth admitted even as he shrugged it off. “She’s going to be too busy with the raid to notice one extra person.”

  I wasn’t sure of Syeth’s plan, but before I could ask, we found the location of the strategy meeting. It was through one of the doors in the more rugged part of the bunker. The door sat open and pushed to the side. It looked like a piece of the concrete wall—no wonder I had missed this room during our first visit.

  The space fit almost fifty Unpaired. They were squished against the walls and standing three deep around Isra and two other generals who stood in the center. Everyone had straight backs, their eyes trained on their leaders. I spotted Decker and Eve across the way. Their solemn faces were barely recognizable as belonging to the same smiling people from the day before when we met with Arnold. Neither of them noticed us, as they were focused on their orders.

  I slouched a little to hide myself and peered between two other Unpaired, looking toward the center of the room.

  Isra paced as she spoke in a clear and low tone. “By regaining our captured commanders, we’ll show both BioPure and the civilians of Chicago that our forces have the capability of hitting BioPure even at their more secure locations.”

  The stocky black man standing next to her spoke next. “Once you have received your assignments, head to the designated areas for further instructions.”

  My heart thrummed in my chest over the fact that something was happening. Whether or not Isra cared about the cure or the man who would create it for the rebels, we were going to rescue John and Marisha. I found it hard to swallow against the tightness in my throat, but I focused on the plan as it was laid out.

  The first group would come in by water. They had the longest route to get from the tip of Indiana—still a part of New California—and drive their boats north toward the prison located in the heart of Chicago on the edge of the monitored Lake Michigan. That group was in charge of taking down the air defenses at the jail and then riding in on amphibious vehicles to meet with the land group. They would take down as many security as possible for the best results for this rescue mission. The water group was the first to leave the room to rustle up their teams. When they cleared out of the room, we were all left with a little more breathing space.

  Next came the largest group, which would travel through a sewer tunnel under the city limits and attack from the land behind the prison. I thought of our journey the night before and wondered how many tunnels the rebels controlled, or if this group would be retracing our steps. From the detailed plan, however, I learned there were nearly a hundred sleeper agents within the city who had been mapping out the city—some for months, and others for years. I wondered if Arnold would help or keep his identity secure when I heard that, now, those agents had been activated and were going to meet the rebels from our base as soon as they arrived. Once inside the city limits, they would split into two teams, one of the teams helping to distract security at the prison and the other hitting a defense grid around a major BioPure treatment production facility.

  Isra spoke next. “Civilians of Chicago need to know that we are more formidable than BioPure would ever tell them. They want us to be the enemy, fine. We can use that. We want those who are tired of the control to know there is a change coming. We can draw them out at the same time.”

  I glanced at Syeth, who was staring at Isra as she spoke.

  “Once the defenses in the prison are down, we’re sending in the choppers for the final phase of the assault,” the second commander continued.

  In the most recent raid, they had procured one of the BioPure raid helicopters, which could hold twenty-four people including the pilot. Four smaller ones that the rebels had long held control of could each hold about half that amount. Those going in with the helicopters were getting dropped inside the prison itself and would be used to get the prisoners out once they were freed. From the sounds of their plan, there were at least five Unpaired commanders and soldiers who had been captured. It sounded as if there was more than enough space for me and all of the prisoners, including John and Marisha. Hope swelled within me that this plan could
work.

  The only part of the plan which made my breath catch in my throat was the timing of the entire mission. From start to finish, once rebels arrived in the prison, they had only twenty-five minutes to get in and out. It would take thirty minutes for the more militant security forces to get to the prison once it was raided, so they had to be out quickly. From there, the teams not leaving on the helicopters would spread out and join the land and lake units to escape.

  Syeth had been assigned to the air operation, but when the meeting was over and the room cleared out, Isra charged over to us.

  “I don’t recall assigning you to any of the teams,” she said.

  “I can help,” I said, lifting my chin. “John and Marisha are there, too.”

  She glared at me. “From what we know, all those captured from the raid are at the prison, yes. But our priority are our men.” She seemed to stop and think for a moment, considering, and finally met Syeth’s eyes as if in some concession. “Since we’re all going in together, though… you may use some of the air team to help find your scientists. There’s plenty of room, so I guess it’ll be fine. If you can get your people onto the rescue helicopters on time, then that’s a win for you and us in the long-run.”

  I bit back the urge to hug her, for fear of her kicking us off the raid.

  She sighed, glaring at Syeth. She knew full well he’d been the one to put this in my head. “Good luck.” Giving us a curt nod, Isra stormed out of the room, and we followed. A line about ten people deep stood outside the armory where the Unpaired from the meeting were gearing up. I assumed they were a part of the air team.

  “I have two Unpaired who are willing to help us once we’re inside the prison,” Syeth said.

  “Let’s see if we can get more.”

  By the time night fell, we had four Unpaired willing to help us. Two of them—Albrecht and Warren—were rebels from Denver. The other two had been higher up in the ranks before our arrival in Chicago, back before Isra had demoted them. Yvette and Harper didn’t care much for the commander, and we were assured that all four would be loyal to us. Thankfully, they were all already assigned to the air unit, as we were hard-pressed to find more people willing to help us on that team. The land and lake units would take up positions outside the prison and would be focused on deterring any incoming security by force. It was up to the air team to secure the interior of the prison and rescue those who were inside, including John and Marisha.