Prologue
General Krofisk was furious. They had refused his offer again, which lead him to make yet another threat that they ignored. If he wanted to get the subject of his obsession he needed a plan, a creation of the mind, one so perfect it would make them surrender it without a second thought. He needed his sister’s ruthless mind. If only she wasn’t locked in the jail of his awful country. He was a well-known figure in Jopichow, his influence was great enough that he could have almost anything he wanted by simply wishing it. He could order the guards to bring her to him, and upon their arrival, order them killed.
Yes, that was it! The perfect way to access the deviousness of his twin.
Within a few days Kalina was standing in front of him. Well, she was strapped in a straitjacket and tied to a frame. But it was a necessary precaution.
He started the conversation, “I need your help.”
“What’s in it for me?” she asked.
“A chance for freedom.”
“No more prisons? No more asylums?”
“None.”
“What do you need?”
He told her. She thought for a minute, and then a wicked grin spread across her pale face. She had an idea, and it was perfect. There were no flaws in her plan, as always; now it was up to him to put the plan into action.
One month later, the men were all in place, waiting for their orders. Krofisk gave the signal, and the stealth aircraft transitioned into a smooth, silent glide forward. A few moments later it was in the air, gaining altitude as it went. So far the plan was going perfectly. The stealth aircraft would fly a course that intercepted a carefully selected airliner. Due to the previous week’s holiday and tube train tunnel collapse a few days before, the plane would be full of people on their way home. Krofisk had made sure there were lots of people driving underneath the tunnel when it “collapsed” to better persuade the ignorant rulers of these countries to hand over his prize.
The plan was to sabotage the plane from multiple points to eliminate any escape attempts. It had to be done far from any civilization. There would be no survivors. Once the men checked that everyone was dead, they would put out all of the fires and any other sign that could alert civilization of what had happened. This had to be done to ensure that all the surviverspeople would have no chance of escape. Dr. Rofeyurd had refused to let them kill anyone directly, and because he was the General's personal doctor, the soldiers obeyed. It was still ruthless, cruel, and most of all foolproof, but that was the point. The governing rulers of the two countries had to know he was behind the attack so that they would surrender it all to him without resistance.
A few hours after the stealth aircraft left he got a call, it was done. They had made sure that the authorities wouldn’t hear of it for as long as possible to give plenty of time for everyone to bleed out. The airlinerwasn’t expected back for another half day or so, though reports were sometimes given as to the plane’s current location. He expected it to be correctly executed. If it wasn’t, he would make each and every man suffer for their mistakes. The report was given to him a few minutes later; everyone was dead.
But one thing left out of the report could change everything; a girl had been trapped in the bathroom when the plane fell. Her spine was broken in several places and shattered nearthe base. There was a long deep cut along the back of her leg. Whatever had cut her also pushed the bone hard enough that it broke, and it was straining against the skin on the front of her leg. The Doctor had given her sleeping meds; he couldn't stand to see anyone in that much pain. If the General ever found out, he would make the doctor suffer, but there was no way, because the only witness to the situation, the girl, would be dead.
But there was a summer home that the men had not known about, it was only about 4 miles away, and the owners arrived on the scene mere minutes after Krofisk’s men had cleared out. They had called the emergency help system, and the medical unit and task force got there quickly. It was thekingand queen of the western half of the old United States. They owned the summer house nearby that saved the girl’s life; unfortunately, everyone else in the wreck had died or was missing. The medics found the girl when she started groaning. Those who found her would never forget the sight of her twisted and mangled body; it would haunt their dreams forever.
They put her in an aireocopter; tube trains were too dangerous to a severely injured person, the high speed and extreme accelerations could suck the blood out of a person through a shallow abrasion a few inches long. When they got to the hospital, she was rushed into immediate surgery. They had to stitch up her leg and replace the demolished bones on her spine. It was a long process, and the girl kept mumbling. Finally, they were done--she would live. But she would not have the use of her legs. There was nothing they could do for a case this bad. She would never walk again.
Chapter 1
“Hurry, we’re going to miss it!” my mom exclaimed.
“I know” was my breathless reply.
We rushed past the attendant collecting the tickets, hustling to get onto the plane.
4 hours later
We were sitting in coach class, on the way back to Diamond Pass. I couldn’t wait to do our annual Easter egg hunt with my favorite cousins. We used to live in Emerald State, but when my mom’s younger sister Liesle got the dreaded Millant disease, we knew we had to move. The Millant disease was the worst sickness you could get in this new age, almost like cancer was in the 21st century. If you got the proper treatment, then your chances of surviving were okay. Those who didn’t take the medicine, a bunch of pills, and a disgusting drink, died more often than not. So we packed up our house and moved to the warm coastal town in what used to be Miami, Florida, now it was called Diamond Pass. All of the old United States had been changed a long time ago. There were two parts now, one of them a democracy, the other a kingdom. All of the states on the democracy side, the side we lived on, were renamed for different stones, minerals, and gems. The kingdom was a little different, no one knew their system, but the names are completely random.
Not many people lived in coastal towns anymore, they all wanted to live somewhere with less of a risk of getting into the ocean waters. The ocean was a dangerous place, not because of the creatures that lived in it; they had all died when the toxic gem dust had been spilled. It was a big attack, almost as bad as the First Attack. I had only ever seen the water from afar before since my parents were worried I would drown. Every athletic activity I’d ever tried had injured me, until I tried swimming.
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I first experienced swimming when Clara, my closest friend, and cousin, decided she wanted to bring me to the coast to skip rocks. Clara was as strong as a bull and amazing at anything that required athletic skills. So when it came to skipping rocks she, of course, was better than me at it. I was furious when she managed to get eight skips out of a stone thinner than my little finger, but larger than my head. I couldn’t even get three skips out of a perfect stone! I stupidly dared her to get the rock so that I could give it one more try. But she refused, saying it was against the rules to swim or even get in the water. And she was right, both my mom and her parents reminded us to be careful when near open water.
But I didn’t care; I wanted to show her I could do something just as well as any other kid my age. So I foolishly jumped into the warm coastal waters and went to fetch the rock. I couldn’t find the rock where I currently was, so I walked in deeper. I could hear Clara yelling at me to get out, that I was going to be in deep, deep trouble. But I stubbornly refused to come back until I had found the giant rock.
Then suddenly, I could no longer feel the bottom. I started to panic, but then I remembered the lessons all children were required to take when they were four years of age. I began to kick and move my arms and found myself going towards the beach again. It was a rush to be gliding through the water the way that a bird soars in the air. After that, I was in the water every day, as often as my parents would allow. They supposed that it couldn’t hurt, as long as I didn’t go too far.
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