Splintered: Book Four of the Illusion of Truth, page 1
Jenetta Penner
Splintered
Book Four of the Illusion of Truth
First published by Torment Publishing 2022
Copyright © 2022 by Jenetta Penner
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Jenetta Penner asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
About the Author
Also by Jenetta Penner
Chapter 1
One question snakes its way around in my mind. The words endlessly shift and churn, but the meaning is always the same.
How did we get here?
I know the answer but it doesn’t seem to make sense.
The Alliance took down the electrodome that imprisoned each of the four Tenements, and people died on their way to freedom. A lot of people. Too many are missing. People I care about. People I’ve never met.
And it’s not as if destroying the prison around each Tenement has solved any of our problems. Aves till ravages Carmine and part of New Philadelphia. There’s no cure yet. A war has begun, and I’m not sure that anyone is going to win . . . or if winning is even a good thing. Cobalts are wandering in the wilds with no home, fearing attack from the Scarlets could come at any moment. Not to mention their lack of protection from the elements.
Could I have done or not done something that would have changed the outcome? Maybe I should never have joined the Cobalt Premier Workforce when Mr. Hawkins asked me to.
I shift onto my other foot. If I hadn’t, would Tenly have been in such danger in Carmine as a governess for the Pierces?
A scoff leaves my slightly parted lips. I’m thinking too much of myself. As if somehow the choices I make influence the world in any significant way. As if I’m the hinge that time and space rely on to function.
Ridiculous.
I’m an eighteen-year-old kid. Barely more than a child, even though I haven’t had the privilege of childlike things in years . . . if ever. Quickly I rake my hands through my blond hair.
“You’re supposed to be a man, Kalib,” I remind myself. But I don’t feel like that either.
It’s not as if I somehow could have changed what happened with Aves, and that’s what drove the release of the Tenements. Scarlets were moving more forces into and near the Tenements and could have simply slaughtered us like fish in a barrel if the word came down from President Nelson.
If I hadn’t taken my place with the Alliance and known the plan, there’s a good chance that Ma, Kayla and I wouldn’t have even made it out of Three alive. So many Cobalts didn’t.
No one can know the future, so there’s little use in thinking about it. Why I can’t get the pointless thoughts out of my mind is beyond me.
I lean against the cool cement wall of the Sub’s corridor and watch Tenly through the lab window. It’s late. Too late. She needs to go to bed. I need to go to bed.
This is how it’s been since she arrived at the Sub after her mission to rescue the little girl, Ellie Pierce, from her quarantined house in Carmine. The child has Aves, and there’s speculation that someone in the Scarlet government exposed her to the virus to force Dr. Pierce, her father, to cooperate with them. Instead, the Alliance and Mr. Robinson offered him sanctuary here in the Sub, promising to rescue his child and put her in a stasis chamber to give him time to find the cure.
Tenly works too much on taking care of Ellie or assisting Dr. Pierce. She doesn’t eat or take breaks, even when the rest of the lab crew does, and I have to pull her out of the chaos so she can start it all again the next day. It’s no different this evening as she bustles around the lab with a tense expression and a tight jaw.
She hasn’t seen me yet, and I’ve been standing here for at least ten minutes waffling on whether to get her.
Dr. Pierce is at her back, tending to the stasis chamber housing his daughter. The machine keeping Aves from ravaging the little girl’s body isn’t stable, having been in the testing phase when we put Ellie inside it. I know that Ten is torn between staying here at the Sub for Ellie and heading out into the unknown to find her parents, whose aircraft went down during the chaos of the evacuation.
But the hope of saving Ellie was the primary thing that brought Dr. Pierce here to work on finding a cure for Aves. That, and the fact that the Carmine government would have killed the man to keep him quiet.
Ten trusts that he’s a good person even though he’s a Scarlet and not part of the Alliance . . . at least not yet. From what she tells me, the doctor does treat my best friend—no, my love—with respect and has left everything he knew behind. Not that the life he knew was worth much anymore . . . but it was his life.
The one thing he’d ever known.
My eyes land on the dark curl that’s wormed its way out of Tenly’s once tightly wound bun at the nape of her neck.
Everything is coming undone. Not just the curl.
My arms tighten, and I run my hands over the tense muscles. But she has enough on her plate without learning that I’ve lost faith. My undoing can’t be hers.
The weight of the burden rests squarely on my shoulders, and it’s my responsibility to withstand the load. I let out a long, steady stream of air and check the time on my Flexx.
It’s late. Too late.
After repocketing my device, I finally push from the wall to retrieve Tenly. We have a lot to talk about in the morning with Mr. Robinson, and getting a few hours of sleep would do us a lot of good.
“I don’t care what you want,” a male voice I recognize carries down the hall. “I should not be here. I need to be out there with my people.” Luek Easton, his dark hair slicked back, rounds the corner with a very tired-looking Mr. Robinson hot on his heels. The gleam in Luek’s eyes is like that of a cornered animal ready to strike.
My people. I close my eyes as my middle pulls tighter into that knot it’s been working on. Luek is a fellow Cobalt and CPW worker. And even if most of the people here in the Sub are escaped Cobalts from one of the four Tenements, all the people calling the shots are still Scarlets, albeit Alliance Scarlets. In the end it was Scarlets who decided it was time for the Tenements to be released, whether they were ready or not. Aves had pushed the timeline, and we were not ready.
Luek knows this. I know this. We all know this.
“Luek,” Mr. Robinson keeps his voice even, and I don’t think either of them notices me. “I know you want to help—”
“I don’t want to help,” he scoffs, and a strand of dark hair falls into his face. “I want to leave. I’m tired of my life choices being decided by Scarlets. When I joined the Workforce, I thought I’d made it. But regular Cobalt, Workforce Cobalt? It doesn’t matter. We are all still second-class or lower in Scarlet eyes.”
“That’s not what the Alliance wants,” Mr. Robinson reasons. “We want equity.”
Luek spins on his heel to my boss. “Do you? Do you truly? Is that why most of the CPWs are dead and your single precious jailed Scarlet is alive?” Several of Luek’s words come out in hisses like an angry snake, ready to strike.
Jude. The precious Scarlet. I gulp.
Jude is like a brother to me, and when against all odds he not only survived torture at the government’s hands but was rescued and brought here, I was elated.
But the cost of his rescue was high. Too high. Only a few Cobalts—Luek, Lincoln and a handful of others—survived the rescue attempt. And Luek is right. If they had focused on the Cobalts instead of one Scarlet, their manpower wouldn
I clench my fists over the dissonance of the entire situation. Is saving one person you love worth the sacrifice of those you don’t? It feels like it is sometimes, because I know the people I love. But the reality is that pretty much everyone out there is loved by someone. They’re somebody’s family . . . somebody’s friend.
And who am I to take that person away just to keep myself from hurting?
“Luek,” Mr. Robinson starts again. “You have the right to be angry . . . and you are correct. We—I made a bad call.”
“Don’t pretend you’re some sort of martyr, Robinson. You were there when I joined the CPW. Hell, you were there when all of us joined. You told us that we’d made it. We’d risen above. But you sat in your fancy mansion, knowing it was all a lie. Us Blueys were the same old trash out in Carmine that we were in the Tenements.” Luek inhales deeply, looking like he’s about to pop.
“You deserved better,” I say.
He flips his rage-filled eyes on me. “You’re damn right I did.”
Neither Mr. Robinson nor I say anything for what seems like way too long. Luek is quite a bit smaller than me, but there’s enough adrenaline in his veins right now that I don’t want to push him over the edge.
“I want to know where my family is,” Luek finally demands. “Where the families of the other surviving CPWs ended up. I owe them that knowledge. I’m the oldest, so the few that are left are looking to me.”
Mr. Robinson blows out a quick breath in frustration. There are about seventeen CPWs left out of a couple hundred. It’s a devastating number, and he is responsible for the losses.
“What’s going on?” Tenly pokes her head out from the lab. It hadn’t even occurred to me that she might have heard the ruckus. Her gaze flits from Luek and Mr. Robinson to me.
“I want to know where my family ended up is what’s going on,” Luek growls. “I want to know why Cobalts are the least of anyone’s concerns.”
“Me too,” Tenly says without skipping a beat. “My parents are missing.”
“And you’re in that lab wasting time.” He flicks his hand toward the lab door. “Helping save the people who got us here in the first place.”
Tenly’s eyes fill with sadness, and I want to leap to her aid.
“Listen, Luek—” I start, but Ten gives me a look that tells me she wants to manage this herself.
“You’re right,” she says. “I am trying to help solve a Scarlet problem. Aves is a Scarlet problem . . . for now. But Scarlet problems inevitably become Cobalt problems, and vice versa. There must be a point where we become humans, not color identifiers from ages ago. Personally, I can’t do that anymore. Hanging on to outdated ideals benefits no one. And it’s going to eventually get us all killed.” She steps the rest of the way through the lab door and closes it behind her. “I was a part of the CPW too. I know how it was hyped up as a pinnacle for Cobalts. But all it amounted to was something that looked good for Scarlets. We didn’t get respect . . . so I understand why you’re angry. You were made to think you were lesser your entire life. Now you want someone else to feel that.”
“You’re damn right,” Luek growls.
Mr. Robinson holds Luek’s gaze for a second and then lowers his own. “Luek. We messed up. We know that, and going forward we are doing everything we can to make things as right as possible. We—I care about all the CPWs, and yes, there were times when you all were forced to bear burdens to create change. I will personally deliver any new information to you when I have it.” Mr. Robinson holds out his hand.
Luek narrows his eyes. “I will not be relying on you for my information. Thank you very much.” He turns away.
“We’re all in this together,” I somehow manage. But it’s weak and not what Luek needs right now. I immediately regret my words.
He angles at me, glares, and then stomps off down the corridor, his heavy boots striking the concrete with each step echoing off the walls.
Mr. Robinson fills his cheeks with air, holds it for a few seconds, and lets it out. Neither Ten nor I say a word.
“He’s angry,” Mr. Robinson says, stating the obvious, “and I don’t blame him.”
I purse my lips and eye Tenly. “We all need sleep.”
“Agreed,” Mr. Robinson says. “Maybe our heads will be clearer in the morning.”
Tenly pulls out her Flexx. “It is morning.”
I run my hands through my hair and gesture in the direction of our unit. “All the more reason to go to bed. We’ve got a lot to do first thing.”
Tenly reaches for the door. “The stasis machine is acting strangely, and I don’t want to leave Gavin to it alone.”
I tip my head. Gavin? “Dr. Pierce can comm you on your Flexx if he needs you.”
“Kalib is right,” Mr. Robinson says. “None of us will be any good to anyone if we don’t get a little rest.”
Tenly’s shoulders droop a fraction. “Fine. Give me a few.” She glances at me. “Don’t wait for me . . . but I’ll wrap up and come to our room in under fifteen minutes.”
I stretch my lips into a thin line. Over the last days I’ve heard promises like this before . . . then it’s hours before I see her again.
She smiles, walks over to me, and kisses me softly on my cheek. “I promise.”
I slide my hand to her upper arm and give it a squeeze. “See you soon.”
Ten heads back into the lab, leaving Mr. Robinson and me alone in the corridor.
“You really don’t have any more information about her parents?” I ask, stuffing my hands into my pockets.
Mr. Robinson shakes his head. “Communication is so spotty right now. I don’t even know what’s going on with my family.”
My chest tightens. Mr. Robinson has grown kids in Carmine, and his wife is an ambassador to New Philly.
“So you don’t know if they’re safe?” I ask.
He shakes his head.
Mr. Robinson is a good man. Imperfect like the rest of us, but a good man. I reach up and pat him on the shoulder. “Get a little shut-eye if you can.”
My boss gives me a weary smile, then leaves. After he’s gone, I turn to watch Tenly through the window before I head off. She’s talking to Dr. Pierce, and he gestures as if to tell her to go so I take a step to head back to our room.
But as soon as my boot hits the floor, wild beeping comes from the lab. I flip around to see Ten typing on the computer and Dr. Pierce fiddling with the stasis chamber as the glass around Ellie steams and grows opaque.
Chapter 2
I press my hands against the glass, wishing I could fix the problem. But I have no clue how to stop these ongoing glitches. I’d be in the way.
What else could happen tonight? Luek’s outburst, now this. But I push away the thought. I don’t want to entertain how everything could be worse and tempt fate.
Tenly’s expression tightens while her fingers pound on the keyboard. Her eyes briefly flash to me and then back to her work.
The scene seems like it takes an hour, but it’s only a few moments when the glass of the stasis chamber returns to clear and Dr. Pierce throws his head back in relief. He runs the back of his hand over the sweat beading on his forehead while Ten finishes what she’s doing on the computer and peers at Dr. Pierce.
He places his hand on her shoulder and says a few words I can’t hear through the glass. The action illogically turns my stomach. I bite my top lip to bring myself out of it. Dr. Pierce is fine . . . I’m not bothered by him personally, but is he where Tenly’s focus should be? Or should it be on her family?
The words Luek had growled at us minutes ago twist my mind. Tenly is helping save the people who got us here in the first place. I quash the negative thoughts. She thinks of Dr. Pierce and Ellie as family, the same way I see Jude or Mr. Robinson. I can’t blame her for finding humanity in people, even if as a whole they have oppressed Cobalts for far too long. Some Scarlets want change. I know this.
Ten pivots toward the door and removes her gloves and smock. She places them into a receptacle and leaves.
“You saw all that?” she asks.
“I suppose you have to stay?”
She clicks her tongue. “Everything is stable for now, and Dr. Pierce is telling me to go. He’s going to comm an on-call lab tech to take a night shift.” She crosses her arms over her chest and hugs herself tightly.
