Chapter One Faith

The library was eerily silent.

Moments ago, there had been action and activity. Now, shock hung thick in the air, choking the room's inhabitants. As nausea threatened to overwhelm her, Faith glanced at her companions.

Blake was frozen, her eyes fixed on the darkened screen. Beside her, Madeleine's eyes were like saucers. The warmth of the room was stifling.

"What–" Faith wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve, attempting to make sense of things. "What happened?"

There was no immediate reply. The only sound was Blake unplugging and reconnecting wires, repeatedly swiping a finger across her datadev.

"I'm not sure." Madeleine shook her head. "A bomb of some kind."

They had heard the explosion before their screens went blank. More powerfully, the ground beneath them had shaken, a booming sound echoing out across the city. Whatever it was had happened close by.

Blake gestured at the still-blank screen. "Whole system's down."

Her words jolted Madeleine into action. "Check the power supply. We have to get it up and running again."

Moving to the door, the leader hauled it open. She gestured through it as Blake stared at her, breathing hard.

"Now!"

Cowed for once, Blake got up and hurried off down the hallway in the direction of the fuse box. The fresh air from the hallway wafted in, a welcome reprieve from the stuffiness. Faith took a deep breath, trying to steady herself.

"Faith?" Madeleine's voice was sharp. "With me."

She disappeared into the hallway without waiting for a reply. Dazed, Faith stood up and followed her. Madeleine headed for the stairway which led to the public area of the library. One of Faith's favourite places, right now the books would not offer their usual comfort.

The first-floor windows would certainly provide answers. But Faith wasn't sure they were answers she was ready for.

She struggled to keep pace with the Resistance leader. Madeleine was surprisingly fit for someone who spent most of her days buried in an office.

As she passed the door to the dorms, she remembered Sophia. Her best friend, newly rescued from Danforth's clutches, was on the other side of it. Faith was desperate to see her. But she had to find out more about the explosion. So many lives hung in the balance.

Promising herself that she would visit Sophia the minute things were calmer, she followed Madeleine up the stairs.

This wasn't the first attack the city had suffered. A couple of months earlier, a bomb had gone off at the Bellator Hospital in the middle of the night, completely destroying the fertility stores. On that occasion, there had been no casualties.

This time, in a city packed with people attending the Liberation Day celebrations, it wasn't a case of if there were casualties, but how many.

At the top of the stairs, she caught hold of the door Madeleine had abandoned just before it collided with her shoulder. The Resistance leader strode across the room, pausing briefly to glance out the first window on her right as she passed.

"Business district looks untouched." She hurried on.

Faith followed her example, trying to focus on key locations as she moved to the opposite side of the space. Reaching the window, her eyes searched for the place she had at one time called home.

It was serene as always. She closed her eyes briefly.

"Academy's okay."

"No damage to the square either." Madeleine sounded breathless. "Looks a bit chaotic, but the buildings are still standing."

Faith ran through the mission plan in her head. Diane's team was safe from the explosion, as well as Flynn and Helen. She heaved a sigh of relief.

But Madeleine had stopped abruptly at the next window.

Faith abandoned her position. The hospital! She stumbled to Madeleine's side. For a moment, she couldn't see the building where Noah was stationed. She felt a trickle of sweat make its way down her spine as her eyes searched the horizon. Finally, they settled on the shining glass frontage. It was untouched.

He was safe.

But the sky to the north was ominously dark. Pushing Faith out of the way, Madeleine moved into the Records Room. The window there offered a view from the end of the building rather than the side.

Faith followed close on her heels. As she reached the window, she echoed Madeleine's horrified gasp. Dark clouds of smoke billowed into the sky in the distance. This was a far more powerful explosion than the one which had enveloped the fertility stores.

Her eyes searched the horizon, trying to make sense of the skyline. Where was the smoke coming from?

And then, it hit her. She was facing a building she had looked out at only a few days ago. A building of great importance to Danforth and the city as a whole. Matriarch House.

The perfect place to hit the chancellor where it hurt.

For a second, relief flooded over her. And then her thoughts flew to the only Resistance operative working within the government building.

Ella.

Only a few hours ago, Ella had sneaked into the control room to help Blake bypass a firewall which was preventing her from broadcasting Faith's speech.

Had she been caught in the explosion? Was she, even now, lying in the rubble of the devastated building?

Faith squinted at the smoke. From this distance, it was impossible to assess the severity of the blast. But as she trailed back downstairs, Faith's nausea returned full-force.