Defiant: Quantic Dreams Book 2 by Elizabeth McLaughlin (reading list txt) 📗

“Could Jacob Alvaro and George Sloan please come to the mess hall. Jacob Alvaro and George Sloan.” It surprised me that they would call the both of us together. At least this way I could ensure that Gabriel wasn’t holding a knife to those responsible for announcing the winner.

We made it to the mess hall at roughly the same time. Gabriel had cleaned up his face as best he could, but his nose still carried an unnatural angle. I smirked and snuck the tip of my tongue between my teeth to keep from laughing. Gallows humor, I suppose. I had to find something funny while the world burned around me. I could hear the wheezing of his breath from several feet away.

“You should really get that looked at, ‘George’. Looks like you had a nasty run-in with somebody.”

“Fuck you, Jacob.” I wonder what pain felt like to someone who had never experienced it before. I bet it wasn’t fun, making my blow all the sweeter. I held the door open for him.

“After you.” Gabriel grit his teeth but there was no way for him to gracefully refuse my offer and he walked ahead of me. Underneath my mask I grinned at the sight of him noticeably limping. Being a human’s pretty rough, I guess.

“Gentlemen, thank you for coming.” One of the masked counters gestured towards a table a few feet away from them. Instead of sitting with me, Gabriel chose a table directly opposite and thunked his colossal frame into the metal chair. The unknown person cast a curious glance at him and continued. “I have to tell you both, it was a close race. Clearly you are both well respected. I owe you my thanks, Mr. Alvaro. Your idea of using the counters helped make the task of tallying up the votes more simple. Mr. Sloan, we thank you for your help in enforcing a free and fair election. We didn’t have a single problem with anyone trying to interfere.”

“Yes, yes, just get on with it.” Gabriel’s scowl had disappeared from his face, replaced with a twinkle of predatory anticipation in his eyes.

“Jacob wins.”

No way. After all the interfering Gabriel did, I had won? How the hells was that possible? I hardly believed my ears. “I’m sorry?”

“You win, Mr. Alvaro. I’d shake your hand in congratulations but...” they gestured to the PPE.

“How?” I had almost forgotten Gabriel was sitting there.

“Votes are votes, Mr. Sloan. If I recall, you were the challenging candidate and the very person who suggested this vote, yes?” The question was punctuated with a sharp edge. Clearly whoever was underneath all that equipment didn’t approve of the waste of time. I completely agreed.

“...yes.” His hands balled themselves into fists on his knees. It was just for a moment, but all of us caught it. Those pesky human emotions must really have been getting in his way.

“Thank you again for your attendance, gentlemen. Mr. Alvaro, if you wouldn’t mind staying behind, I’d like to discuss something with you.”

My elation at winning the election was cut short by remembering that I was still responsible for a thousand lives and we had an epidemic. I could laugh at Gabriel’s plan failing later. “Of course.”

Gabriel stood up suddenly and stalked from the mess. From the poisonous glare he shot me on his way out, I doubted that this was going to be the last battle in the war. For now however, he was toothless, and I could take advantage of that. One less ball in the air, so to speak.

“The truth is that you did win...by one vote.”

“Oh? Huh. I wonder who it was.” One vote was still a victory but it gave me pause to know that the race was that close. I was definitely not as safe as I imagined myself.

“It was me,” they said. “I was there that night at the club.”

“You were? Hah.” That night with Shannon seemed a lifetime ago. “Please, I did what anyone else would have done.”

“And yet so many did not, sir. You earned my respect that night. You have my trust in dealing with this virus, but I have to warn you that trust is spread thin. There are many who will still oppose the results of the vote. For your sake, I hope you have a good plan.”

“I’m still working on it, but I’d rather sacrifice my own life than let someone else die for me. That much I can promise you.” I didn’t have a lot to guarantee, but I did have that.

“That’s good enough for me, sir.” Their eyes crinkled in a smile underneath the protective equipment.

There was one pressing task ahead of me I had to attend to. The bodies of Allison and Tarik had been prepared for cremation and waited for me. One of the people who stepped forward from the crowd earlier stood at the door, playing a movie on his tablet. He snapped to attention and shoved the tablet into a pocket when I walked in.

“Relax, kid. I’m not military.” I waved at him dismissively. Allison and Tarik’s bodies had been wrapped in clean white cloth and placed into airtight bags. I touched each of the bags gently and felt a fresh pang of guilt in my chest. I had killed these people. Two brilliant, kind, beloved individuals who were lost to their families forever. My thoughts were interrupted when the young man spoke.

“Hah. You’re right. Sorry, Mr. Alvaro. My father is a strict man. He raised me to hold myself like a soldier, even if none of us have ever been one.”

“I’m sure he’s a good man. It’s Jacob, by the way.”

“Sir?”

“And ditch the ‘sir’ stuff, too. I appreciate that you all are trying to show me respect now that I’m your officially elected leader and all that, but all you’re doing is making me feel old.” At least I could still dredge up some humor. That was something. The kid laughed.

“I’ve already got the furnace to