Shutdown (Glitch)

my voice subdued. I didn’t know how I was going to look Cole in the face after what I’d done.
    “Cole and Xona have been clearing the dead out all day. Simin was able to hack into the Chancellor’s control console, so he’s been feeding new instructions to the rest of the Regs so they didn’t start attacking us once Amara got tired. But it only works for the Regs who were here under the Chancellor’s personal guard.”
    “And Markan?”
    “He’s fine.” Adrien squeezed my hand. “He told us what happened with the Chancellor … and with Max.”
    I took a deep breath in and out. I had to keep it together. As much as I might want to go curl up in my sleeping container and forget the world, people would be looking to me for leadership. And I could tell there was more Adrien wasn’t saying yet. He was tense.
    “Adrien, what’s really going on?”
    He nodded toward the doorway ahead. “Everyone will want to talk about it at the same time.”
    Now he really had me worried. I went into the room and saw a crowd gathered inside, locked in a tense discussion.
    I straightened my back and tried to exude a strength I didn’t feel as I strode to the center table. “Okay,” I said, working to make my voice sound confident. “What’s the situation?”
    Juan moved out of his chair and offered it to me. I sat down, and looked around the table at Tyryn, Jilia, Xona, Henk, and some of the other glitchers on my team. I was relieved to see that those who had been captured by the Chancellor didn’t look any worse for wear. Markan sat at a nearby table, his expression less fearful and suspicious than it had been yesterday. I barely managed to stop myself from going over and hugging him.
    Xona spoke up first. “We’re under attack. The Chancellor sent an alarm signal when you breached the walls. Saminsa’s keeping the armada back with a huge protective sphere surrounding the whole building. But City was just out there with her.” She turned to City. “What’s the latest report?”
    “We’ve rallied the other glitchers who are willing to work with us voluntarily,” City said. “They’ve been working with Rand and me to take out attack transports all night. But Saminsa’s getting tired. She won’t be able to hold the shield for much longer. Especially now that they’ve moved into high-payload missiles.”
    I jumped to my feet. “I need to go out there. I can take down transports with my telek—”
    Adrien put a hand on my arm. “We agree, but first we wanted to have a meeting to figure out what our next step is. We can’t just stay here under siege forever. Saminsa will be fine for a while longer until we get a game plan together.”
    I sat down. He was right. “So what’s our next move?”
    “That’s what we’ve been talking about—” Adrien started.
    Xona snorted. “You mean arguing about.”
    “What are the options you’ve come up with?” I asked.
    Henk spoke up first. “I say we oughta bug out of here. We can keep the transports busy long enough to escape. The Chancellor has three attack transports of her own in the back bay. We can escape with those. We’ll split everyone up and all head in different directions. Without the Chancellor around, we’ll finally be able to go to ground and start rebuilding the Rez from scratch.”
    “And I say we need to stand and fight,” Xona said. “Guerilla warfare has gotten us nowhere in the past two centuries. The Rez is all but wiped off the map at this point. We’ve got an army of glitchers at our command. We ought to take those transports and attack Central City. If we take out the heart of the government, we have a chance to finally start the revolution we’ve always dreamed about. We can hit a few key focalized areas where Zoe can crush drone V-chips so they can fight with us. Starting with the academies right outside Central City.”
    “All that’s accomplished in the past is to get the people she freed killed within a day,” Henk said.
    Xona was undeterred. “But that was before. Now we’ll be there to back them up militarily. What’s your range up to, Zoe? How many chips do you think you can take out at once?”
    My mouth popped open as everyone’s gaze swung to look at me. For once I didn’t feel out of my depth. I knew exactly what we needed to do.
    I glanced over at Markan. He was looking on with interest. He must have been watching everyone for the past twenty-four hours. He’d gotten a glimpse of the Rez at work.