Legend

June Iparis, a 15-year-old child prodigy on track to join the Republic’s military, attends one of the Republic’s top schools, Drake University. June is in trouble for “[scaling] the side of a nineteen-story building with an XM-621 gun strapped to [her] back” (13) without permission, and her older brother—Captain Metias Iparis—has to come to the school to bail her out after she is suspended for one week. June remarks that despite her reckless, rebellious behavior, “[she’s] the only Drake student who’s ever managed to get eight reports in one quarter without being expelled” (12) because she is the “only person in the entire Republic with a perfect 1500 score on her Trial” (12). Nonetheless, Metias is tired of June’s antics, and he begs her to behave and stay out of trouble.

June is eager to better herself, and she doesn’t think that Drake University is challenging her abilities, especially if the military is trying to catch someone like Day. Metias is protective of June, and although he lives in constant fear that “something might happen to [June] one day—like the car crash that took [their] parents” (19), he can’t help but be impressed by June’s feats. Metias’s subordinate, Thomas, remarks that “[June] won’t learn a thing if [Metias] keep[s] praising her for breaking the rules” (19). June and Metias return to their home in the Ruby sector, one of the wealthier areas of Los Angeles, and Metias announces that he has to leave to oversee a delivery to one of the labs. He tells June he’ll be home soon and that “[they] have a lot to talk about” when he returns.

Day recalls the first time he committed a crime: His father was brought in for questioning and brutalized by city police, and afterward, Day “dipped a ball of crushed ice into a can of gasoline, let the oil coat the ice in a thick layer, and lit it” before “[launching] it with a slingshot through the window of [their] local police station” (22). He decides to break into Los Angeles Central Hospital to steal a plague cure for his family, and he pretends to be injured to gain admittance. He is searched, but security doesn’t find “the knives tucked in [Day’s] boots” (25).

Inside the hospital, Day steals a soldier’s ID tags and heads for the laboratory that stores the plague cures. Day holds a doctor in the laboratory hostage as soldiers descend on him. To his horror, Day discovers that “all the vials [of plague cure] are empty. They’ve run out” (30). Day quickly releases his hostage and tries to escape from the hospital but is pursued by none other than Metias and his soldiers. Day falls from the hospital window and is injured, and just as he is about to escape on the street, Metias tries to arrest him by himself. Day “throw[s] [his] knife at [Metias] with all [his] strength,” and “[the] knife hits him hard in the shoulder and he falls backward with a thud” (33). Day escapes, thinking he has only injured Metias, and eventually collapses and blacks out. He realizes that his father’s pendant is “no longer looped around [his] neck” (34).

June recalls how Metias missed his induction ceremony into the Republic military years ago. June was sick at home, and Metias decided to take care of her. Metias explains that June is more important than any ceremony, and he promises that he’ll stay with her “forever and ever [...] until [she is] sick and tired of seeing [him]” (36). In the present, June is interrupted at home by Thomas knocking on the door. Commander Jameson, Metias’s commanding officer, has ordered June to come with Thomas.

Thomas reports that “Metias has been killed” (38), and June goes into shock as she is taken to the hospital. Thomas admits that they haven’t apprehended the murderer yet, and as Commander Jameson meets June outside of the hospital, she explains that June has been graduated early from Drake University. She is to begin working with the military to catch Metias’s murderer. June is brought to Metias’s body, and as she examines the “knife still protruding from his chest” (43), June begins to analyze the crime and the details that led to her brother’s death. She admits that “[she’s] supposed to be analyzing the crime scene…but [she] can’t concentrate” (44), and she vows to take revenge on her brother’s killer. June is told that Day is responsible for Metias’s death because they found “the same prints [...] found just last month at a crime scene linked to Day” (47).

Commander Jameson tells June that if she can successfully track down Day, June will be promoted to the title of detective agent. June struggles to figure out a motive for Day’s actions because he seemed to be looking for a plague cure. She also notes that “Day has never killed anyone before” (48), and it doesn’t make sense for him to kill Metias. June’s biggest clue lies in the pendant Day left behind, and she begins to hatch a plan to catch him.

Two days after the hospital break-in, Day awakens in a strange house, where Tess is attending to his wounds. She explains that she has gone to see Day’s family, and it is Day’s little brother, Eden, who has the plague, but “Eden can talk and seems alert enough” (52). Day’s older brother, John, is the only one who knows that Day is still alive, and he is furious that Day broke into the hospital for them. Tess and Day are staying in the house of a man who lost a son to the plague years ago, and Tess thinks the man took pity on them because Day’s attempts to get a plague cure for his family “reminded [the man] of his son” (54).

Day thinks about how he first met Tess three years ago and how much he relies on her now, even though she was the one who needed him at first. The house owner tells Day and Tess that they have to leave because “[he] just heard about a man who’s been looking for [Day]” (56), offering to sell a plague cure to him. Tess and Day know it’s a trap, and they agree to leave. Day worries about his missing pendant, and he wonders if the Republic will be able to trace it back to his family. Tess urges Day to leave the city for a while, but Day refuses because “it’s not like John and Mom can just pick up and leave their assigned jobs to flee with [him], not without raising an alert” (58). Day admits that although he doesn’t want to meet the mysterious man who is looking for him, he is curious to find out if the person does, in fact, have plague cures for his family.

Commander Jameson helps June coordinate Metias’s funeral. June is overwhelmed, and she “wander[s] among the guests, lost and aimless, responding to the sympathetic words of those around [her] with appropriate, practiced replies” (61). June runs into Chian, a man who mentored Metias and “organizes and oversees all Trials taken in Los Angeles” (63). June recalls that Metias hated Chian, but she tries to remain civil because “Chian is not a man to make into an enemy” (63).

June recalls how Metias began as Chian’s mentor but abruptly filed an appeal, deciding that he would rather join the city patrols, and was reassigned to Commander Jameson. Although Metias told Chian that he just “didn’t have the smarts to judge the Trials or organize the kids who finished taking them” (64), June senses there is more to the story. Chian expresses his pleasure that June will be tracking down Day, and Thomas explains to June that Chian “has a personal grudge against Day” (65) because Day attacked Chian and gave him a huge scar on his face. June is once again overwhelmed by the loss of her brother, and she wants to get the funeral over with so she can begin her pursuit of Metias’s murderer.