Rebellion by Stephanie Diaz Page A

feels weird. We’ve barely spoken at all the past week, since he’s been so busy with his leadership duties. And we haven’t said a word to each other since yesterday. Not since what happened with Cady.
    Dropping my eyes, I feign interest in my bootlaces, hoping Beechy will break the silence and hoping he won’t at the same time.
    “Listen,” he says. “We’ve figured out assignments for the mission, how we’re going to sneak everyone into the lower sectors.”
    Good. This is a much easier subject.
    “We’re going to disguise most people as officials if we can.” Beechy pauses, hesitating. “But I’ve been stuck on what I should do about you and Logan. You, especially, must be on Charlie’s wanted list, and I’m afraid making you an official will put you in a situation where it’s too easy for someone to recognize you. Your face is pretty distinct. And Logan’s in a similar situation. He has the limp in his leg, which could draw attention to him.”
    I can’t argue with him. “What assignments do you want to give us, then?”
    “I came up with two options. The first is that I would assign both of you to the secondary team. A few people aren’t leaving tomorrow; they’re staying here to keep the facility running, including Sandy.”
    My calm evaporates as I realize where’s he’s going with this.
    “They’ll back us up once we’re ready to break into the Core,” Beechy says. “So you and Logan could stay here too—”
    “No vruxing way. I can’t keep sitting here, waiting for things to happen. I need to do something. Or what’s the point of anything?”
    “Okay, I know, I know,” Beechy says quickly. “It was only a suggestion, and I assumed you’d shoot it down. So, I came up with one other option. In all honesty, I prefer this one myself, in terms of its strategic nature. My reservations come from the fact that I don’t want to see you get hurt. But what I want is to put you in one of the work camps in the lower sectors, whichever one we can get you into with the least amount of trouble. I don’t mean as an official or someone who sneaks into the camp—I mean as an actual worker, as a girl expecting to be replaced. Since there are so many people in the camps, you’d have a good chance of blending in. We need to rally those in the camps to our cause, and the best way I can see of accomplishing that is by giving them someone like them to lead them in rebellion. Someone like you. And Logan, if he’ll agree to go with you.”
    He pauses, waiting for me to say something. Waiting for me to yell. But something holds me back.
    Beechy’s right: I couldn’t pass as an official or an instructor. I look like someone who lives in one of the work camps, and that’s the part I’m fit to play. It’s a part we need someone to play, if we want those in the camps on our side. Most of them wouldn’t trust any adults, even ones claiming to be trying to help them.
    But if I agreed to this, I’d be trapped in one of the camps again. I’d have to worry about being beaten by officials, or dragged off to one of the kill chambers. I’d have to be prepared for the possibility of being captured and turned over to Commander Charlie at any moment.
    “You okay?” Beechy asks.
    “Fine.” I’ve been saying that a lot lately.
    But I force myself to stay calm. I will be calm about this.
    This is exactly what I wanted: an important part in the mission. I will be in danger wherever I go once I leave our headquarters. But at least in a camp I might have a shot at rallying more people to help us overthrow the Developers.
    “You don’t have to agree if you don’t want to,” Beechy says. “And I didn’t mean I’d send you in alone. There will be other rebels posing as officials, to keep an eye on you and step in if things get out of hand. This isn’t a one-man mission.”
    And Charlie won’t expect this. He’ll expect me to holler and beg and plead before I let someone imprison me in another work