Enemy Inside (Defectors Trilogy) by Benner Tarah

Author:Benner, Tarah [Benner, Tarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-01-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The four of us sat there, listening intently to Ida and Rulon arguing.

“That’s ridiculous,” Rulon scoffed. “Why would Aryus —”

“Why?” asked Ida. “He’s the one who stands to benefit from all of this.”

“The Private Military Company is its own entity gone rogue.”

“Who’s giving the orders, then? I know you blew up every general they had in the riots.”

“So they’ve appointed a new general.”

“The riots didn’t even faze the PMC. Why do you think that is? It’s just the military branch of a much larger entity.”

“World Corp International owns the PMC?” Rulon let out a harsh, guttural laugh.

“Is that so hard to believe? They distribute the food, they made the largest campaign donations for years before the Collapse, and their scientist developed the vaccine. Every breakthrough agricultural, pharmaceutical, and tech product in the last decade has come from World Corp International.”

“What would World Corp stand to gain? The country is overrun. Everyone has migrated north.”

“Well, for one thing, people paid for the vaccine. And now they’re building a new life in the north. I can think of a few ways World Corp could profit from that. Have any of us actually seen what it’s like up there?”

Rulon was silent for several seconds. Finally he spoke again, but with much less resolve. “That doesn’t change our strategy. If we continue to push back against the PMC, we will begin to make a dent. Another riot like the ones in Sector X would devastate their ranks. I won’t discuss this again.”

“Then let’s discuss relocation. This place is contaminated. Almost all the survivors are unvaccinated. There’s going to be an outbreak, and when it happens, we’ll all be sitting ducks for the PMC. How long do you think it will take them to find this camp? A day? A week?”

“You’ve got some nerve,” snarled Rulon. “You barge into my camp and start delivering orders when you’ve been cowering on your farm for the last year.”

I tensed, anger flaring inside me.

“I’m not giving orders,” said Ida. “I’m just sharing what I know . . . and sharing my concern. Your ranks took a hard hit today, and I’m willing to join forces. But I will not put my people in danger by sitting around waiting to be found or for those dead people to befoul the water supply when the snow melts.”

“Leave, then,” Rulon said in a deadly whisper. “Take a few days to regroup. Then get out of my camp.”

Rulon’s footsteps faded away, and I glanced across the tent to Logan and Greyson, who looked serious.

“Ida’s right,” I whispered. “We need to leave.”

Amory nodded. “Rulon’s stubborn. He would get us all killed before agreeing to retreat.”

“When do we leave?”

“As soon as Logan is well enough to move, I say.”

“Do you think it’s possible?” Logan whispered. “Do you think World Corp International is really behind all this?”

“I don’t know. How much do they control?”

“Everything,” said Greyson. “I went to a bunch of protests against them before the Collapse. They’ve been involved in every major corporate disaster of the last few years.

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