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“Not my mother. But my father—yeah. I’ll do what I need to do.”
“I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you never have to make that choice. Our goal is to capture New America’s leadership and put them on trial. A democratic society is only as good as it treats its worst people.”
He turns onto another dirt road, this one leading to a big rock formation. A steel door built into the rock rolls up, revealing light inside.
Hiro drives through the opening, leading us into a huge cave that reminds me of my father’s doomsday bunker. Fluorescent lights line the walls. Around a dozen vehicles are parked inside, but there are no other people in sight.
After pulling the vehicle to the side and putting it in park, Hiro clears his throat.
“I want to be clear. The safety of ILF operatives is the most important thing to me. If you do your job, I’ll protect you with my life if it comes to that. But if you betray the ILF and endanger our other operatives, I’ll find you and kill you myself. I spent my career in special forces and it would just be a day at the office for me. If fieldwork isn’t for you, this is your last chance to back out.” He looks in the rearview mirror. “Both of you.”
“I’m still in,” Olin says, the words jumbled because of the candy he’s eating.
“I’m in.” I hold Hiro’s gaze. “And I’ve got the advantage of aromium. I’m faster and stronger than any of your other people. I’ll run circles around them.”
He finally cracks a smile. “We’ll see about that.”
When he opens the door to the vehicle and steps out, Olin and I follow suit. Hiro takes us over to a weathered, ancient-looking wooden door.
“This is a former silver mine,” he says. “It’s full of tunnels. We’re going down to one of the mined caves to meet your partner.”
“Why can’t I be his partner?” Olin asks.
“Because I want to live,” I say, grinning.
He scrunches his face, offended. “I spent more than two years on the island. No one ever suspected I was a spy.”
“That’s because you wisely pretended to be mute.”
Hiro intervenes. “You have a role, too, Olin. We’ll get to it.”
Olin nods and looks at his fingertips, which are coated in sticky pink syrup. I shake my head.
“What? I can wash them off in the snow,” he says.
Hiro opens the metal latch on the door and leads us into the inky black space. He takes something small out of his pocket and clicks it, a dim light coming from it.
“There’s our ride,” he says, pointing to an old wooden mining car with metal wheels.
It’s on tracks, but it’s so dark in here I can barely even make out the car, let alone where the tracks lead.
“Are you shitting me? You want us to get in that?”
“I’m getting in, too,” Hiro says matter-of-factly.
He steps into the car, which has a bench seat on each side. After securing his lap belt, he looks at us expectantly.
“This is nothing,” he says. “Get in.”
I sigh deeply and get into the musty-smelling car, taking the bench across from Hiro’s. It’s so small my knees are practically touching my chest. Olin follows, folding himself in beside me. We both find our seat belts and secure them.
Hiro pulls a tall metal lever beside the car and it starts rolling.
“Hopefully they got that track repair finished,” he murmurs.
Olin and I exchange a look right before Hiro clicks off the light. We’re rolling into a pitch-black tunnel.
“Are you fucking kidding?” I ask, preparing to unbuckle the belt and throw myself out of the car.
