The Resisters by Eric Nylund

Madison.
    “But now we can complete the mission.” Madison glanced at her watch. “We have twelve minutes. That’s just enough time for Blackwood to fly us back to the barn. We get our suits and the three of us stop that train.”
    “Train?” Ethan said to himself.
    How could he have forgotten? Emma and a half-dozen other students had been accepted into Early Honors Admission. That train would take Santa Blanca’s best andbrightest away—kids thinking they were about to start the rest of their lives, when in reality their lives as individual people were about to end.
    “You know how important this mission is,” Madison went on, almost pleading with Felix. “Santa Blanca is the train’s
first
transfer. We stop it before it gets here, and it saves kids in nine other neighborhoods. We can throw the entire Ch’zar harvesting apparatus into chaos. Maybe retrieve some of the—”
    “No,” Felix said. “I’m in charge of this mission. We lost one member of the team already. We almost lost one of our suits. Twelve minutes isn’t time enough for us to get back, scout the area, and set up a proper operation.”
    These two could argue all day, but Ethan had to do
something
. His sister’s life was at stake.
    He could go to her—assuming no adult found him, and also assuming he could convince her that he wasn’t crazy—and he could stop her from getting on that train. But even if he could, that’d just delay the inevitable.
    Emma was a year older than him. She’d change sooner. Become an adult … and be absorbed into the Collective no matter what he did.
    He had to do something better. Bigger.
    Like stop the Ch’zar.
    In a soccer match, sometimes the field cleared of defenders all the way to the goal, and you took the shot.
    Ethan saw this was the same thing. He was going to take his best shot.
    He went to the wasp and put his legs into the creature. “I’m going,” he told them. “My sister’s supposed to get on that train. I’ll do whatever it takes to stop it.”
    Felix grabbed his arm. “I can’t let you do that.”
    Ethan stared at his grip. “Can you stop me?”
    Their eyes met.
    Felix didn’t blink. Neither did Ethan.
    Ethan knew the big guy could pull him out of the suit and knock him silly if he wanted, but something was different between the two of them now.
    Standing inside the wasp suit, Ethan felt … not exactly invulnerable, but at least an equal match for powerful Felix.
    Felix let go and tapped a few controls inside the wasp.
    He turned back to Ethan and flashed him an angry look. “I
can
stop you,” he whispered. “I’m not going to, though, because Madison’s right. We were sent to stop that train—it’s important to the Resistance—and we’re going to do it. But we’re going to do it
my
way, understand?”
    Ethan nodded. He listened. He had a feeling his life might depend on what Felix told him next.
    “I set your autopilot to turn on if you lose consciousness,” Felix said. “It’ll access the parts of your brain that regulate breathing and heartbeat to fly the suit back to our base. If the armor gets compromised, though, or if you die … then the suit will self-destruct. Do you understand?”
    Ethan swallowed. “Yeah. Got it.”
    “Good. Fly over the mountains. Keep low. If you’re notspotted, watch the tunnel entrance. We’ll meet you there. If you see the train, do
not
engage it. It’ll be too heavily defended. Instead, fire on the train tracks. Blow those up, and it’ll have to stop. That will give us time to get to you. Now, repeat that back to me.”
    “Fly over the mountains,” Ethan said. “Watch the tunnel entrance. Shoot the tracks. Wait for you. I got it.”
    Felix set one of his hunormous hands on Ethan’s shoulder and squeezed. “I’m not sure if you’re brave or monumentally stupid like Madison says, but either way, Ethan, good luck. We’ll catch up as soon as we can.”
    Ethan felt like he was going to be sick, but he had to hold it