Read Online Liberty by Annie Laurie Cechini - Free Book Online

anything worthwhile, and I had been sailing the System for more than a year.
    “Are they serious?” I asked.
    “What?”
    “If these folks are so committed, why don’t they stop talking and do something about it?”
    Suddenly, all eyes were on me. You could have heard a pin drop in spite of the sawdust, it was that quiet. Apparently, vomiting into the sawdust was far more commonplace than a teenage girl thinking out loud.
    “So glad you’re feeling better,” said Tess, “but you have no idea what you’re saying.” She walked toward me one very intimidating step at a time. I sat up in my chair and clutched at my cold cloth, trying to look dignified and feeling like crap.
    Tess continued. “Since you’re new, let me enlighten you. You want our help? Prove that you are worth your weight. We talk about things to get us through, but if it weren’t for that secret door hiding us from the outside world, most of us would be dead already simply for disagreeing with the SUN. The laws of the old States were overruled long ago, along with the right to dissent.”
    I cleared my throat.
    “So, let me see if I understand,” I said. The crackers were starting to stick as I stood up and looked Tess square in the face. “You’re okay just sitting here like a jackwagon, talking about freedom. Not actually doing anything about it, mind, just talking about it. Having Berrett here run letters for you, and starting a few risk-free fires here and there for the SUN to put out. And when you die, what then? Planning on handing this mess you didn’t have the guts to clean up over to your children?”
    “Dix!” hissed Berrett.
    “No, I’m not,” said Tess. “Which brings us to you. You want our protection? You give us something in return. Berrett tells us you have something that could change the future for our cause.”
    My eyes flew open wide.
    “You told them about the Eternigen?” I cried. “I trusted you!”
    “I didn’t say anything, I swear!”
    “Liar.”
    “Berrett would never lie, and he really didn’t say anything about Eternigen,” said Tess. “You just did, though.”
    My jaw dropped. “Flark,” I whispered.
    I sank into my chair, exhaustion and shock riding through me. I had never let my secret slip. Not once in five years had I unintentionally told anyone what I guarded. All the strength from the crackers left me as I realized my terrible mistake.
    “Well, now we know why the SUN wants you dead so badly,” said Tess. “So, here’s how this is going to work. I’ll give you two options. Option one. Berrett here is one of our best runners. He has an honest job at a SUN shipyard, a nice shiny record, never done anything sneaky or devious, and with that rocket pack of his, he’s a fast mover. He can hide you and help you get a ship.”
    “And how does this benefit you, exactly?” I asked.
    “First, let’s talk some more about you. Have you been sitting on that vial, or have you been trying to replicate it? What’s your game plan? I assume you have one.”
    “I ....” There was nothing left to hide from them. I sighed. “We were tryin’ to break the formula. There’s only enough here to get one person out of the system and back.”
    “We? You have good resources, then?” asked Tess. “Someone who knows what they’re doing?”
    I nodded. “Hobs is the best scientist in the System. The SUN wanted him a full year before graduating from the Académie and courted him the whole time he was there. He’s a genius. It was a miracle the Eternigen was created in the first place, but if anyone can break the formula, he can. Not that he’ll do you much good, seeing as I had to launch him into space to save him.”
    “Got any guesses as to where he might be?” asked Tess.
    I nodded.
    “Then get him back, break the Eternigen formula, and you bring it back to us. We use the Eternigen as leverage against the SUN, to show the whole of the System that we’re being governed by a bunch of liars. Then we