“Sure,” he said, reaching out and taking the case. “Thank you.”
He paused as he took them, really taking a good look at my face. “You know, you do look familiar to me. Did we have a chance to meet face-to-face yet? I try to get out on the floor every day, but it’s so hard to recall some days.”
I shook my head quickly. “Not formally, sir.”
“Who’s your direct supervisor?”
I faltered. Alex was a supervisor, but I didn’t want to use his name. I had already come dangerously close to exposing him with just the little bit I had done. If they figured out that I was me… and his twin… I shuddered to think of the consequences.
“Jim,” I said after a moment, looking around. “But he’s not my direct supervisor. He—”
“That wasn’t what I asked you,” he said with a frown, crossing his arms. “Who’s your direct supervisor?”
Four sets of eyes turned to me, pinning me down collectively with their scrutiny, and I felt as if someone had just jammed a baton in my back, and hadn’t released the charge yet. But it was coming.
“My direct supervisor is—”
Maddox snapped forward, her fist striking fast across Johnson’s throat. He made a choked sound, his hands going around his neck as his eyes bulged, and she shoved him to one side, moving toward the door. I followed behind her, and was just exiting the door when everyone behind us erupted into panic.
We immediately began running. Grey and Quess were waiting for us some ten to fifteen feet down the hall. They took one look at us as we exited the room, and then began running as well.
16
We ran, sprinting down the long hall, and were maybe twenty feet away from the server room when an alarm began to blare out. Immediately, red lights installed on the walls started to flash, while the walls themselves changed and began pulsing in red.
“Intruders detected in Section 97,” chimed Scipio’s voice, and it took me a minute to remember this was the real one. “Sealing off the halls.”
“Keep running,” Quess urged needlessly—we hadn’t stopped—his breathing already erratic. “We need to get out of here before our exit is blocked off.”
Behind us, a metallic bang caused the whole floor to shudder. I looked over my shoulder in time to see a metallic door now in place where the other end of the hall had once been—and a group of people wearing black uniforms trimmed in blue rounding the corner, cradling some sort of glowing ball in their hands. I didn’t know what the ball was, but the black uniforms marked them as Inquisitors—Scipio’s personal security.
One of them immediately leveled his hand at me, unclenching his fingers from around the light. I instinctively ducked, just as the air overhead seemed to grow hot and thick, brushing over my back with surprising force. I stumbled, bracing myself against the wall and barely managing to keep upright, before I resumed running.
“We’ve got company!” I shouted, and all three of my friends risked a glance over their shoulders to peer past me at the mob in pursuit. I followed their gazes just in time to see another, closer door slam shut.
“Lashes!” Quess yelled, his lash ends already flying, and I poured on some speed to catch up to Grey.
“You better keep this from hurting!” I shouted when we both realized he was going to have to jump on my back before I could lash away—and that wasn’t generally something you did quickly. I threw my lashes, stopping long enough for him to hook his carabiner onto the link on the back of my uniform, and I activated the retractor before his weight was fully on me, throwing us both in the air.
“Whoa!” Grey shouted, his hands clamping down over my chest as we jerked up into the air.
I ignored it, my hand already throwing the next lash and propelling us down the hall. Luckily, the ceilings were twenty-five feet, so we swung high, keeping ourselves off the ground and pulling away from the group below.
Ahead of me, Maddox suddenly swung to one side, giving me room to pass her. “What is she doing?” I called.
I felt Grey’s weight shift as he twisted around to look. “She’s still behind us. I think she wanted you in the middle because you’re carrying me.”
It made sense. With Grey, I was slightly slower, and my balance was more difficult to shift around. If we were taken down, both of us would be caught long before we were able to untangle ourselves from each other and the line. I didn’t like that she was doing this for me, mostly because I wanted to be last to prevent anyone from getting hurt or taken, but now wasn’t the time to argue, so I gritted my teeth and surged forward.
I lashed faster, my muscles aching from their lack of use over the past week. Carrying Grey’s weight and moving at this speed was exhausting my resources quickly. If we didn’t get back to the server room soon, my muscles would give out.
Almost as soon as I realized it, Quess began to give himself more slack in the lines, drawing closer and closer to the floor in long, sweeping strokes until he was near enough to set his feet down and keep running without missing a beat. I followed his lead and lowered us as well, and Grey jumped off my back before I had even set a foot on the ground—something I could kiss him for later. I resumed running as well, but I was already slower than I had been before, and a stitch was beginning to form in my side.
Quess had stopped down the hall in front of the door, and I came to a halt next to him and Grey, watching as he tried to tug the door open. All we had to do was get back through the server room and up the shaft, and we’d be out of here. Which meant that all this door needed to do to keep from pissing me off was open.
“We’re locked out!” Quess shouted, his eyes darting around in panic. I glanced down the hall, past where Maddox was pounding toward us at a dead run, and saw that the group pursuing us was only forty or fifty feet back. And closing in fast.
“Is there a way to hack it?” I asked, whipping around to study the door. Like several of the doors on this level, it too had some sort of electrical lock. I just hoped this was a type he knew how to open.
Quess nodded shakily, his hands going for his satchel and pulling the pad out. I could tell Quess was scared: his hands were practically vibrating. I looked at Grey.
“Help him,” I said, and he nodded, plucking the pad from Quess’s fingers. “Maddox and I will buy you time.”
“Tell me what to do,” Grey said patiently, kneeling next to Quess, and I turned away, confident that Grey and Quess would get it figured out. I ran toward Maddox, who had slowed to a stop. I stopped as well and gave her a look.
“We have to buy them some time,” I said, pulling my lash end out. She looked at it. “It’s the only weapon we have. Watch out for their hands—they are shooting some sort of compression thing at us.”
“Pulse shield,” Quess shouted from behind us. “The name is a misnomer. Those things are weapons, and they hurt.” I turned to yell back at him to shut up and work, and then stopped when I saw that he was working. Grey’s hand was on his shoulder as he talked to Quess in low tones.
“I know, I know…” Quess muttered. “Just… don’t let them take me, okay? If they find us, promise me that you will kill me. These guys don’t like deserters.”
“I’ll kill you right now if you don’t hurry up,” Maddox said, and together we turned to face the surging group of people coming toward us.
“They aren’t going to get us, Quess,” I said, gripping my lash ends tightly between my fingers, tension radiating from me.
There were eight of them in total, but there was only enough room for them to stand side by side in pairs. That gave us an advantage they didn’t have.
“You go down,” Maddox said from the side of her mouth as they drew even closer, now just thirty feet away. “I’ll go up.”
“Got it.”
I licked my lips, rolling my shoulders. This was just like sparring, I reminded myself. I just needed to be careful; they might want to hurt me, but I didn’t want to have to kill anyone unless absolutely necessary.
They thunder
ed closer, and we both moved as those in front raised their hands. I rolled forward under a blast as it shot overhead, and then threw my lash, catching it around the first man’s left ankle. I tugged, going down on one knee, and jerked him off his feet. Immediately everyone around him began to stumble, and I retracted the lash and stood as Maddox landed behind them. She bent over and landed a smart punch to one downed woman’s head, snapping her head back with terrific force. It wasn’t enough to kill, thankfully, but it did render her unconscious.
Behind Maddox, another door slammed shut, thirty feet down.
I moved forward as the Inquisitors began to untangle themselves. I heard another wet thunk of Maddox’s fist, but was focused on a man who was my nearest target. I kicked him in the face, wincing as I did so, and he fell back with a stunned cry.
“We almost got it!” Grey shouted from behind me as I ducked beneath a wild haymaker delivered by the man whose ankle I had lassoed, driving my shoulder into his stomach and pushing him back. He stumbled—how could he not, with the tangle of limbs and bodies behind him?—and we both wound up on the ground again, with me on top of him.
I sat up quickly and brought my fist down on his face, and then blindly cast my lash end backwards, hit the button, and retracted the line, using it to jerk me to my feet. I detached and turned in time to catch a body in the midsection, dragging me to the floor. I hit hard, my head slamming into the ground forcefully enough to make my teeth rattle, but adrenaline pushed the pain back, and panic forced my eyes open.
A fist was already hurtling down toward my face, but I reflexively snapped my head to one side and was rewarded with the sharp crack of his fist on the pavement next to me. He howled, rearing back and clutching his wrist, and I slid back, planting a foot on his chest for leverage and knocking him backwards. I was halfway to my feet when I saw another black-clad figure hopping over the downed man, her hand up, fingers uncurled.
I ducked to one side, but caught the edge of the blast. The impact of it altered my trajectory, and I slammed into the wall shoulder first, my arm exploding into a fiery ball of pain. I opened my eyes, dazed, my breath coming in sharp pants, looking around for a target. Fingers entangled in my hair, and I instinctively slammed my head backwards. There was a sharp crunch, and I took a step forward and twisted, bringing my elbow up into my opponent’s ribcage. She tore a chunk of hair from my head as she stumbled back, and I turned to see her clutching her broken nose. She was doubled over and wheezing through the blood streaming between her fingers.
My scalp burned where the chunk had been ripped out, and my left shoulder throbbed deep within the socket, but rage had begun to fuel my actions, and I took a step forward, grabbing her hand and feeling around. She looked up at me just as I found the button to her pulse weapon, and clicked it. The pulse hit her right in the face, and she was flung backwards ten feet, her arms and legs limp as a ragdoll’s. I didn’t see her land; I was already moving away from the next attacker, dipping right and stepping back to avoid two blows in rapid succession. I pivoted on the ball of my foot, left arm snapping up to block his third blow, while my right fist followed close behind.
I caught him in the chin with an uppercut, and then slammed my palm into his chest, forcing him back a few steps. He fell, and I sagged back, my hand reflexively grabbing my shoulder to try to stop the pain that was radiating from it. I looked back to see Maddox standing over several bodies, her hair mussed and her breathing heavy. She saw me looking at her and straightened, unclenching her fists.
A shout sounded behind her, and I craned my neck to see more black-clad individuals emerging from around the corner of a side hallway, this group even larger than the last.
“We have to go,” I panted, turning and hobbling toward Grey and Quess. “We have to go now.”
“Almost there,” Quess said, his eyes on the pad. Grey looked up at me, his eyes instantly flashing in concern, and I shook my head. He could worry about my bumps and bruises later.
I turned back down the hall to see Maddox slipping one of the pulse blasters off of an Inquisition agent’s hands, the crowd almost on her.
“DOXY, GET UP HERE!” I bellowed, but she turned her back on me to fire a pulse shot down the hallway, knocking back several would-be attackers. I growled, and began to race back to her.
“Liana!” Grey cried, and I felt his hands on my shoulders, holding me back and causing agony to shoot down my left one. I broke out of his arms in time to see Maddox stop short and look back at me. She grabbed something and threw it toward me, just as a door descended, slamming down between us. I caught it reflexively, and realized it was her box with the nets.
“MADDOX!” I cried, ripping myself out of Grey’s grip and rushing at the door barrier. I began to bang on it, my fist clenching the box thudding against the metal, and I looked back at Quess. “We have to hack this barrier!”
“She’s in there with at least twelve individuals from the Inquisition—maybe even more. There’s no time.” Grey’s voice was grim as he spoke.
I looked up at him, baffled by his words. “You want to abandon her? We can’t do that!”
“We can, and we will,” Grey said. “But only for now. We need to run now so we can get her later, okay?”
I licked my lips and turned back to the door barrier, staring at it. From the stretch of hallway still exposed to us, I could hear the sound of booted feet drawing near. They were only moments away. Grey was right.
I turned away, even though I hated myself for doing it. I ducked through the door Quess finally managed to open just as I began to make out the dark uniforms of the Inquisition. They emerged from an opening on the right, and I quickly moved into the cold server room, Grey right at my heels. Quess did something on his pad, and the door slid shut, the light on the spot where the handle should have been turning red and sealing closed with a hiss and a click.
“I’ve locked it for now,” Quess said, his teeth already chattering. “But it will be overridden. Let’s go.”
I followed him as he led us through the isolated rows of servers, and found myself despising Scipio all over again. He sat atop an isolated and frozen throne, looking down on all of us, never knowing the pain he caused us.
I couldn’t wait to get away from him.
Quess volunteered to carry Grey back up the shaft (and by volunteer, I meant Grey made him do it), and I was relieved (even if it did mean Grey had to suffer through Quess’s unorthodox climb). I was in pain after the fight, and my mind was already going over what we needed to do to get home safely… and then get Maddox home safely.
17
“We can’t go straight back,” I said, finally breaking the stunned and somber silence that had shrouded us on our climb up. Neither one replied, but I needed to remind them that our plan was still in effect. We exited the shaft, my boots landing on the floor. I immediately scanned the corridor, my eyes searching for any sign of movement. We were far away from the Core, yes, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t be—or weren’t already being— followed. And I was taking every precaution I could before we went back to Sanctum. Last time, I hadn’t known there were ways of tracking someone using radioactive isotopes, and I had led Devon straight back to us. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.
“We need to change out of our clothes and modify our disguises,” I announced, verbally trying to nudge the two into action.
Grey stood with his arms crossed, his brows drawn together and a distant look on his face that led to nowhere but the floor. He was still, contemplative. Quess, on the other hand, looked twitchy and agitated, impatient to move or not move—it was hard to tell.
“C’mon,” I told them, pushing them gently down the hallway.
God, I hated this. Each step I took was another step farther away from Maddox. She was up there, alone, captured… I thought of the woman behind the glass in that gas chamber I’d visited with Gerome, her eyes staring at me accusatorially, and it was all I could do not to try to go back right then.
But I couldn’t. I had to keep us moving forward, and I hated myself for it.
“But Maddox is back there,” Quess said, spinning away from my hand. “We need to go back and break her out.”
I looked at him, clenching my teeth hard to keep from telling him yes. He stared at me, his eyes searching, and I couldn’t say it. So I shook my head.
“Liana!” he exclaimed, stunned by my refusal.
“I’m sorry,” I said, biting my lip. “But going back is not an option right now.”
Quess didn’t even let me finish before he began to speak, his words angry, with a bitter bite. “Of course it’s an option! We call Mercury and Alex and make them help us! We have to do something—who knows what they are going to do to her!”
My hands tightened into fists, and I nodded. “I know that.”
“Then why aren’t we calling them?”
“Because we have to get back to Sanctum to install our new nets,” I said.
“We have them, we can do them right—”
“No, we can’t,” Grey said suddenly, looking up and over at Quess. “The data crystals with the new IDs are down there. We need to get them first before we can do anything, which is why Liana is telling you not right now.”
Quess looked back and forth between us, his face ranging from defiant to embarrassed when he realized that we were right. “But… Maddox…”
“We’re going to get her,” I informed him. “But there is nothing we can do for her right now. We follow the plan and head back. Maddox will be okay.”
“How are you so calm about this?!” Quess exploded, and I turned toward him, watching as he ran a weary hand over an equally weary face, deflating. “Why aren’t you more upset?”
“I am upset,” I said, the words tumbling out of me in an angry hiss. “I didn’t want to leave her behind! If she had just come back when I said to…” I cut off the statement as waves of frustration washed over me, and took a deep, calming breath, trying to get a grip. This wasn’t Maddox’s fault. It was mine. I had raced back to the others and left her behind. But I wasn’t going to let her stay there. “Being upset doesn’t do anything,” I finally said. “It’s just wasting our time, which is wasting Maddox’s. So here’s what we are going to do: we are going back to Sanctum to get our new nets installed, and then I am going to call my brother to find out where Doxy is, and how we can break her out, okay?”