“Meri!” Atlas shouts and starts back toward me.

“Get out!” I yell as I climb to my feet, ignore the blood running down my back, shift the bag on my shoulder, and run.

My head throbs. The tunnel shudders. Dirt falls faster from above. Spine shouts that I’m almost there. Atlas waves from the entrance as if willing me closer. The grumbling of the gears swells as I reach out, take Atlas’s hand, and am pulled inside.

I gasp for breath and put my hand against the back of my head as something swooshes behind me. The ground jumps under my feet, and I turn as a solid steel panel slams down, sealing off the entrance I just climbed through.

Seventeen

“And here I thought it would be close,” Spine jokes, brushing dirt off her shirt.

“You’re hurt.” Dewey lifts his lantern and digs out a handkerchief, which Atlas presses to my wound.

“I’ll be fine.” I wince. “But I could use a Band-Aid and some aspirin.”

We follow Spine through the pedway to the exit station, Atlas holding the cloth against my cut as we climb into the elevator and head aboveground. When the doors open, the buzz of conversation washes over me.

“We were wondering what happened to you.” Index comes around the corner. She takes one look at us and frowns. “What happened?”

“Scarlett initiated the lockdown early,” Atlas explains. “If anyone else wants to go down, you’ll have to tell them the Lyceum is closed.”

“But why?” Index asks.

“That’s a longer story than we have time for right now.” Spine glances at Atlas. She clearly doesn’t want to bring up Scarlett’s betrayal of his father in front of him. “If we are going to be ready to spread the truth tonight, we need to get our plan together and give my Stokers time to prepare.”

“Here.” I pull my notes and the map out of my bag and explain the plan Atlas and Rose helped me come up with. “These locations should be filled with enough people to make this work,” I say, showing them the five I have starred. “Scheduled events will be starting at those places in the next few hours.”

“What’s this one?” Dewey points to the sixth location I have circled on the page.

“Have you ever looked at an image you see every day and realized you never noticed parts of it before?” I ask. “A good artist knows how to force the eye to focus on the thing they want to be seen. This—” I point to the sixth location. “This is our attempt to change the focus.”

Spine nods. “Atlas, see that Merriam gets patched up. Dewey and I will assign teams to hit each of these locations and brief them on the strategy.” She glances at the clock on the wall opposite the elevator. “We have two hours to put together our game plans.”

“Come on,” Atlas says as Spine and Dewey follow Index to where the Stokers are waiting. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”