Chapter Fifty Noah

As they approached the library, the streets felt electric. Noah let his gaze roam, revelling in the sense of freedom. Bellator seemed to have tipped on its axis in the past few hours. Things were changing.

The Bellator citizens were out in force, either marching towards the academy or the new government headquarters. Every woman they passed was demanding answers. And whilst some of them recoiled from Noah and Paulo, many of the women regarded them with curiosity.

It was progress. Noah wished he could celebrate.

None of the women were brave enough to attempt a conversation with a man yet. But as a female, Ruth had been able to speak to several of them in passing.

News of Danforth's involvement in the Bellator bombing had spread through the city like wildfire. And the women were furious. There were whispers that the academy was overrun with citizens, curious to see it for themselves. The remaining students would be safe from Danforth, Noah reassured himself, because there were so many members of the public present.

Once the drugs had been completely destroyed, Danforth would have nothing left to test on the girls anyway. He glanced to the west, where the smoke of the Acton Street Warehouse still billowed into the sky. The explosions were supposed to happen simultaneously. But until they could work out what was going on inside the Eliot Street location, it was still standing.

There was a distinct lack of guard presence on the street. News was, they had abandoned the academy as a lost cause, and most of them had been called to defend the temporary government headquarters. The number of women protesting, some armed with banners scrawled with hasty slogans, some with actual weapons, was rumoured to be unmanageable.

Order was unravelling in Bellator. The Resistance was gaining power by the minute.

But with Faith's fate hanging in the balance, there was no time to celebrate.

At the top of the library steps, Paulo hesitated. "You sure we're welcome here?"

"They might be a little… surprised. They don't usually use this entrance, but…"

Noah had considered entering the library through the tunnel but wasn't sure that he'd be allowed into the shop across the square without a female Resistance member. And, he figured, with the city in such chaos, a small group entering the library through the side door would go unnoticed. At least, he hoped they would. Noting his brother's apprehension, he pasted on a smile.

"The Resistance knows what you've done for them. And there might be more you can do, if you're willing." He stared at his brother. "Don't tell me you're actually nervous?"

"I'm not!" The response came too quickly. Paulo blushed. "It's just… I've never dealt with Bellator women en masse before. Only with Madeleine, and occasionally Evelyn. I just…"

Beside him, Charlie was smirking. "We're not aliens, you know."

"Shut up." He threw her a dark look. "Just ring the bell, would you?"

Noah did as he asked. Paulo and Charlie were an unlikely couple, but he'd begun to revise his original opinion of them. Charlie was a different woman than the one he had disarmed in the tunnel. No longer acting out of fear, not bound by the guard rules, she was relaxed and lighthearted. She even teased Paulo, something which he'd never known anyone to get away with.

Perhaps she was just what his brother needed. And who was he to judge a relationship between an Eremus man and a Bellator woman? It was hypocritical of him, when he wanted the same thing with Faith.

His heart quickened as he thought of her again, and he pressed the bell a second time. When the door finally opened, he was thankful to see Diane on the other side.

"Glad you made it back so fast. Lots to fill you in on." She gestured at the smoky sky. "At least one of them is gone." She stared at Paulo, who seemed to have frozen on the doorstep. "Come on in, then!"

He obeyed stiffly. "What's going on?"

Diane closed the door behind them. "Madeleine will explain."

Refusing to say any more, she led them through a deserted hub.

"Where is everyone?" Noah stared around at the usually-bustling room.

"Out on missions." Diane threw back over her shoulder. "Except me, Blake, and Rowan. And Madeleine, of course."

The leader was pacing the floor when they entered her office. She stopped at their arrival, her face tense.

"Thank goodness you're back! We thought we might be too late." She ran her gaze across the group. Her eyes settled on Charlie and she frowned. "Who is this?"

Noah stepped forward. "This is Charlie. She was the sole surviving guard from the tunnel attack on Eremus." As Madeleine's face darkened, he hastened to add. "She's on our side now."

"She came with you from Eremus?" This was directed at Paulo.

"She did. And she guided us to the warehouse we were supposed to be destroying for you." Paulo's tone was defensive. "But if she's not welcome…"

Madeleine shrugged. "I didn't say that. We have to be careful, is all." She sat down in her usual chair and turned to Charlie. "Would you mind waiting outside for now? No offence, but I'm not happy with you hearing the precise details of our mission before I trust you."

"No offence taken." Charlie shrugged. "Just know that I have guard experience. And I'm on your side. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know."

Madeleine waited until she had exited. "Let me bring you up to speed. Things were going very well until the recent setback. As you know, Blake's team managed to extract most of the senior girls from the academy. You finished the job by getting Helen out and securing Anderson's confession. I've just had word from Eremus that the group arrived safely. They're being settled into the caves as we speak." She turned to Noah. "Your ma went ahead of them. She assures me that most of them are adjusting well."

"They will be, if Anna's there," Paulo said.

Noah swallowed hard. The faith his brother had in his ma was humbling. With the loss of Flynn, he had worried his brother would retreat into himself. Instead, it seemed he was drawing strength from his other relationships. Hopefully, Noah would be among those who his brother turned to.

"In terms of Danforth," Madeleine continued, "the truth is well and truly out. Thanks to your assistance, Anderson's speech was aired live to every single woman on the march. Anyone who was outside the school tonight heard her admission about Danforth's guilt."

For the first time, Noah found himself thinking of Kemp. "The professor was heading here when she left us." His heart beat faster. "Isn't she back yet?"

"Don't worry." Diane caught the concern on his face. "She's been and gone."

Madeleine nodded. "We duplicated the recording immediately. Kemp took a copy to Stella Thane a while back." A fleeting grin crossed the Resistance leader's face. "The woman's been broadcasting it on every frequency possible for the last hour."

"I don't think there's a citizen in Bellator who hasn't heard the truth." Diane whistled. "And these women are angry."

"They really are. We met a few on our way back here," Ruth explained.

Madeleine gave a satisfied grin. "There's no way Danforth can come back from this."

"So what's going on inside the Eliot Street Warehouse?" Paulo closed his hand into a fist. "We heard shots."

Madeleine froze. "Shots, you say?"

Noah's heart contracted. "That's not why you asked us to step down?"

Ignoring his question, Madeleine turned to Diane. "You'd better go tell Blake. See if she's managed to hack into any of the nearby security cameras." As Diane hurried to obey, the leader turned to Paulo. "Describe what happened."

For once, Noah was happy to let his brother respond. "We heard two shots while we were standing across the street preparing to plant the explosives. We were about to contact you to ask what to do when you sent Noah that message." He stared at Madeleine. "What's going on?"

The Resistance leader turned to face Noah. "You remember I reassured you that there was a plan in place to help Faith?"

"Yes." He tried not to panic. "Didn't it work?"

"Not exactly, no." She frowned. "Carol, the technician who came to us?" He nodded. "She agreed to help with our plan to rescue Faith."

Noah had known this already. "Did something go wrong?"

"We provided Carol with a keycard to access the fertility wards." Madeleine held up a hand at Noah's questioning gaze. "As you know, Blake and I have been working on the tech for universal keycards to give us access to any of Danforth's private buildings. We weren't certain it would work until someone tried it. Anyway, she managed to get inside. But Faith was heavily sedated. There was no way Carol could have moved her alone."

"What did she do then?" Ruth had been standing close to the door but took several steps towards Madeleine's desk as she spoke. Her face was pale. "Is Faith okay?"

"Honestly," Madeleine looked down at her desk, "we're not sure. Carol reduced Faith's sedation levels, hoping she might regain consciousness, but it wasn't going to happen fast enough." Madeleine didn't sugarcoat it. "Not to the level where she would be able to walk."

A weight settled on Noah's shoulders. Faith was still stuck in the hospital.

"We did, however, have a Plan B which Carol managed to execute." Madeleine's expression brightened. "Before she left, Carol implanted a tracking chip in the back of Faith's neck." The Resistance leader held a hand out to prevent Noah from interrupting. "A backup option, so we could keep tabs on where she was."

Paulo lowered his frame into one of the chairs opposite Madeleine's desk. "What has this got to do with the warehouse?"

"Quite a lot, I'm afraid. Since Carol left the hospital, we've been tracking Faith's chip." As Madeleine continued, a sense of foreboding crept over Noah. "Earlier today, she was moved."

Noah's hand started to shake. "Where to?"

He was pretty sure he knew the answer.

"Well, that's the curious thing," Madeleine turned the datadev screen in front of her around. They could all see a map of the city. "According to her chip, she's currently located in the Eliot Street Warehouse."

The world around Noah went fuzzy. He shook his head, trying to clear it. "What?"

"This is her." Madeleine pointed to a red dot which blinked on and off intermittently. "See?"

"You mean…?" Noah felt sick.

"I mean," Madeleine's body tensed, "if you hadn't received our message in time, Faith would be–"

The Resistance leader didn't have to finish the sentence. As Noah fought to control his rising panic, all he could think about was how close they'd been to blowing up the very place that Faith was being held captive.

And, if they had ignored Madeleine's orders, how close they could have been to rescuing her.