Specimen

  “I’m not sure she knows,” I say, “but she hinted that he was set up—killed by someone within the Mills Conglomerate. She thought it was done to turn him into a martyr and further the cause.”

  Riley clasps her hands together and places them under her chin as she takes it all in. I wish I could give her all the time in the world to absorb this information, but we don’t have that luxury right now. We’ve been here too long already.

  “I think I can get us out of Mills territory,” I tell her, “but once we’re out, what do we do?”

  “Do you think you can find that group again?” she asks. “Can you find Errol Spat?”

  “Possibly.”

  “Then we leave,” Riley says. “We leave and go find them. I want answers, now more than ever, and I’m not going to get them from anyone at the Mills Conglomerate.”

  Chapter 20

  “How can there only be one parachute?” Inside my head, the clock ticks.

  We had been in the air for seven minutes before I killed the pilot. It had taken us twenty-one minutes to get to the area where I landed the helicopter, six minutes to get to the cabin where we spent thirty-nine minutes going over security footage. One hour and thirteen minutes, plus the ten minutes it took us to get back to the helicopter only to find out there aren’t enough parachutes.

  They have to be searching for us by now.

  I’m trying to remain calm, but it isn’t easy. The information in my head says this type of helicopter should be equipped with two parachutes, but one is missing. For all I know, there is a platoon of soldiers just over the horizon on their way to apprehend us. Due to the tracking device in my implant, they’ll know our exact position.

  Fuck!

  “I have no idea how these things are usually equipped,” Riley says.

  “There are supposed to be two.”

  “I take it that’s important?”

  I stop and take a breath, recalculating possible actions. If it were only me, I could make it on foot and find a way to breach the wall, but Riley can’t. The journey would be too long, and she would require water and food. She isn’t fast enough.

  We need the helicopter.

  “Put it on,” I tell her.

  “What about you?” Riley slides the straps over her arms and I make sure it’s fastened properly.

  “Let me worry about that.” I’m definitely worrying, but my options are limited. I have to get us out of here and into Carson territory. If we can get across the border, we won’t be followed. It wouldn’t make sense tactically; they’d need time to strategize.

  Eventually, they’ll send other specimens to retrieve us.

  After helping Riley get her medical bag secured to her waist, I grab a half-full canteen and a flashlight from the back of the helicopter and shove them into pockets.

  “Get in.”

  Riley climbs into the helicopter, and I take the pilot’s seat. We rise gently into the air, and I check the instruments to make sure there isn’t any other air traffic near us. Looking around at the ground, I see no vehicles approaching.

  Maybe we got lucky.

  I can’t quite bring myself to believe that.

  I see the monorail below us. There’s no train on it at the moment, but the track leads the way to Yorkstown and the border wall. As we approach, a train zips by beneath us, and a sensation ripples through me.

  Isaac is on that train.

  “Getting close.” I glance at Riley. She doesn’t reply, the tension in her body clearly visible. “Just over the wall and across the river.”

  “We’ll never make it.”

  “Trust me.”

  I pull the cyclic to the side, aiming for the part of the wall that is closest to the Grey River. Monitors flash, informing me that there are two other helicopters approaching. They’re not like the medical transport I’m flying; these are heavily armed war machines. The maneuverability and speed is also much greater, and they’re approaching rapidly.

  We’re still a half mile from the wall.

  I twist the throttle and open it up to maximum speed, but the others are still closing on us. I won’t make it to the wall before they’re close enough to fire.

  A crackling sound in my head momentarily distracts me.

  “Sten? It’s Isaac.”

  I don’t need to hear his name to know his voice in my head.

  “What the fuck are you doing, man?”

  I don’t respond. I raise the collective to take us higher.

  “They fucked with your head,” Isaac says. “I know they did, but you gotta listen to Dr. Grace. You gotta listen to Riley. You know you want to obey her—just let it happen.”

  He thinks Riley is my hostage. Good.

  “They’re gonna shoot you out of the sky, Sten! Don’t do that to me, bro!”

  “Sorry, Isaac. Someday, I hope you understand.”

  “Sten? Sten!”

  That’s not my name.

  Lights flicker on the control panel as alarms go off all around me. The display shows an incoming missile.

  “Hold on!” I veer left and then lower us rapidly. Riley grips her seat and closes her eyes, and I’m sure she’s holding in a scream. I pull up again, and she places one hand on her stomach.

  Please don’t puke.

  The missile flies past us, but another is fast approaching. Behind that is a third and fourth. I can’t dodge them all. The final one clips the rotor, and we go into a spin. I pull at the collective, and gain a little altitude, but the cyclic is nearly useless.

  I look over the side. The wall is just below us, and I can see several soldiers arming missile launchers on the top. I only need a hundred and fifty feet for us to land on the far side of the river, but I’ve got to get more altitude.

  I fight with the controls as another barrage of missiles comes from below. We gain a hundred feet and then two hundred. We’re almost high enough when one of the blades is hit with a massive explosion.

  There’s a fire above and behind me. The controls burn in my hands. I’m not sure we’re far enough over the border, and I’m out of time.

  Reaching over the seat, I grab hold of Riley and tear the harness off of her. I hear another explosion, louder this time. Riley grips her medical bag to her chest and screams, but I keep my focus. Pulling her over on top of me, I kick at the door. It flies open, and I push us both out of it.

  The helicopter explodes as we fall through the air, sending burning debris all around us. I keep a tight grip on Riley with one hand and take a firm grasp on the parachute cord with the other.

  We continue to fall.

  “Galen! Galen! We’re still falling! Pull the cord!”

  “It’s okay.” I try to keep my voice calm to reassure her, but it doesn’t work. I can feel her shaking in my arms. “Just a little farther.”

  We’re spinning, but I keep my focus on our distance to the ground. The longer we fall, the less likely anyone is to notice us. I also need to make sure we drift enough after the chute opens to be on the opposite side of the river.

  Three…two…one…

  I grab the cord and give it a quick yank. The chute opens, and I wrap both arms around Riley as the inertial force hits us. Riley’s panting and digging her fingers into my arm, but that’s good. She’s conscious and alive.

  I glance down. There’s very little time to try to steer the chute to keep us from landing on something hard, but we make it over the river easily and land with a thud in some shrubs. I jump to my feet with Riley still wrapped in my arms.

  “Are you all right?” I ask her.

  Her cheek is bleeding from a long scrape, likely from the bushes.

  “A little bruised, maybe,” Riley says. “I’m okay.”

  “You’re bleeding.” I reach up and wipe a smear of blood from her face. “It’s not deep.”

  “I’ve got some first aid supplies in my bag,” she says.

  “Later,” I tell her. “We have to move. Now.”

  “I need to catch my brea
th,” Riley says. “I thought we were going to die!”

  “There’s no time for that.” I urge her with my words and a hand on her back. “Do I need to carry you?”

  Riley shakes her head.

  “Let’s move.” I take her hand and keep my pace slow so she can keep up.

  Looking into the data from my original capture, the internal clock in my implant tells me that seven hours and twelve minutes had passed between the time I was netted in the woods and when I woke up strapped to a platform. However, I have no idea what transpired during that time. The information on my return is too scrambled to make sense of it.

  The map inside my head shows me the route to Martinsberg. I wish I had a better recollection of my capture so I would know if that’s where I had been taken, but Martinsberg and its new tech facility is the most logical place to find Errol Spat.

  On foot, the journey will take a little under eleven hours, assuming Riley can keep up a fast pace. I could make the trip without pause, but Riley can’t. Unwilling to have her out in the open overnight, I alter the course to Martinsberg, bringing us near the smaller city of Haprin. We should at least be able to find shelter there, rest, and get going again before dawn.

  We travel for over two hours. Riley is exhausted, but we can’t rest out in the open. I need to find her somewhere safe for the night. We’re still well over a mile from Haprin, but I can see the first city lights in the distance. I keep encouraging her to move as quickly as possible.

  “What are the chances we’ll find some water somewhere?” she asks, breathing hard.

  The small amount contained in the canteen had only lasted the first hour, and we haven’t come across any clean water.

  “We’ll find some,” I tell her. “We just need to make it to the city limits. Once we get there, finding what you need should be easy.”

  I have no idea if what I’m telling her is true or not, but I know our chances will be better close to civilization. If I have to invade a private residence to get her what she needs, I have no problem doing that though I hope I don’t have to go that far.

  As we finally reach the edge of the city, I see exactly what I need.

  Behind a power station sits an industrial park. Most of the lights are out though it isn’t very late. There are very few vehicles in the area, and I steer us clear of those that are running. Far off to one side is an old, dilapidated building with several broken windows.

  “See that?” I point the building out to Riley.

  “The warehouse?”

  “Yes, on the far left,” I say. “It looks abandoned.”

  We move closer, sticking to the side of the building. There are no vehicles in sight aside from a rusted-out truck. I peer through several windows, shining my flashlight into them, but there are no people in sight either.

  “I think it will suit us for the night, at least,” I say.

  “How do we get in?”

  I give her a half smile, smash in the nearest window, and help her through it.

  “Subtle.” Riley presses her lips together. “What if there’s an alarm?”

  “It would have gone off when the other windows were broken,” I tell her. “There is no active alarm system here.”

  We go through the main warehouse, past rows of empty shelves. There are a few stacks of broken down boxes lying about and filth everywhere. One crate holds a stack of cloth on bolts.

  “No one’s been in this building for a long time.” I take Riley’s hand and lead her toward a staircase along the back wall. “Let’s see if there are offices upstairs.”

  On the top level, we find a decent-sized office and start to make camp for the night. Riley retrieves a dusty bolt of cloth, shakes it out, and starts making a bed of it while I check out the rest of the upstairs for any kind of supplies.

  There’s running water in the bathroom, which I use to fill up the canteen. I break into a vending machine and grab the single bag of potato chips inside, but there’s no other food or drink to be found.

  “Stay here,” I tell Riley when I deliver the water and chips. “I’m going to find more supplies.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  Riley grabs my hand and squeezes it for a moment. I can see the worry in her eyes.

  “I’ll be careful,” I tell her.

  I head outside and check out the surrounding buildings. None of them look as abandoned as the one we found, and several of them do have alarm systems. I can’t risk being found so close to our hiding spot, so I break into a run down the side of the main street.

  There is little traffic this late at night, and I stick to the shadows near structures. Haprin isn’t a big city by any means, but I do find a shopping center not far from the industrial park. I break in through the back door of a closed grocery, grab a sack, and shove it full of food and energy drinks. I’m in and out in three minutes. Even if I did trip a silent alarm, I will be long gone before anyone gets here.

  I return to Riley, and she digs in quickly. I feel no need for food, but I do drink a decent amount of water. I leave the rest for Riley. We still have a long trek ahead of us in the morning.

  “I need to give you your injections.” She takes out her bag and removes two hypodermics, already loaded.

  I take off my shirt to give her better access to my veins and sit in the office chair. Riley slides the needle through my skin, loading me up with TST and FOG. I feel it surge into my system with a flash of white-hot pain, but it diminishes quickly.

  “Okay?” Riley asks softly.

  “I’m good.” I roll my shoulders and stretch my neck. “It just hits a little hard.”

  “I know,” she says. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t do that.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t want you to get into the habit of apologizing to me for what’s been done. There’s nothing either of us can do to change it now.”

  “I’ll try,” she says with a sad smile. She places everything back inside her medical bag. “I am developing a bit of a guilt complex though, and every injection is going to remain a reminder of that.”

  “I’ll always need them, won’t I?”

  “Yes. The implants won’t function correctly without them, and there is no way to remove the implants without leaving you a vegetable.”

  I’d already figured as much.

  “I don’t necessarily regret what’s been done,” I tell her. “The way it was accomplished, yeah, but not the end result. If I weren’t like I am now, I wouldn’t have been able to fly a helicopter to get us away. I wouldn’t have a chance at finding Spat and the others. I can’t regret any of it, not if it means I can keep you safe now.”

  “Maybe this will help.” Riley pulls a small data stick out of her medical bag.

  “What is that?”

  “The diagnostic information from the techs at Mills,” she says. “I thought Spat might be able to make better sense of it.”

  “Maybe.” I wonder if he will be willing to do so. Of the people I remember from my time with the Carson Alliance, he remains the least known to me. The only times he was in my presence, I was rather out of it.

  “Come here.” Riley sits on the makeshift bed and pats the spot beside her.

  I join her on the surprisingly comfortable bed she’s made, wondering if this used to be a textile plant of some kind. She’s managed to find a lot of cloth to make a soft mattress below us and a couple of other blankets to keep us warm.

  She reaches up and turns my face toward hers, kissing me softly. I let myself melt into the feeling. We’re safe here, at least for a little while.

  Riley breaks away and looks into my eyes, her expression relaxed and comforting. I can see the love in her eyes, and I’m surprised I never noticed it before.

  “I’m sorry I doubted you,” I say.

  “I don’t blame you,” she replies. “If I were in your position, I think I might have just stayed where I was, prisoner or not.”

  “I
couldn’t,” I say with a shake of my head. “I need you.”

  “Is it all right that I’m glad about that?”

  “It is.”

  “It shouldn’t have to be that way.”

  “Stop.” I kiss her again. “No guilt. It doesn’t serve any purpose now.”

  She nods and grips my arm, kissing me again. I turn and lower her to the blankets, pressing my mouth hard against hers. She tilts her head back to receive me, moaning into my mouth, then quickly turns away.

  “Are we safe here?”

  “Reasonably,” I reply. “No one has been here for a long time. The only people who can track my implant are in Mills Conglomerate territory, and it will take them some time to get a team together to come after me here.”

  “Us,” she says, correcting me. “We are in this together.”

  “Us.” I smile and push a stray strand of hair from her forehead. “Hopefully, we’ll find some help. If we can get to the new tech facility, I think we’ll find the people who captured me.”

  “What if they decide to torture you again?”

  “I think they know now how ineffective that is. I can’t imagine they would waste their time again.”

  If they threaten me with harm to her, I don’t know what I will do.

  I don’t mention this to Riley.

  “They tried to hack into my implants, but it didn’t work.”

  “They’d have to disable the implants or break your conditioning. If anyone could figure out how to do that, it’s Errol Spat.”

  “I don’t think he had enough time. I was pretty out of it by then, but I remember him saying he didn’t have the medical knowledge.”

  “Do you think if he had the time and my medical expertise, he might figure it out?”

  “I’m not sure. Possibly.”

  “I hope he can,” she says. “I really don’t believe we’ll ever be able to remove them entirely, but I’ve been trying to think of ways to adjust the implants so you at least don’t need the drugs. I’ve got enough to keep you going for a few weeks, but after that, we’ll have to come up with another supply or figure out a substitute.”

  “Is there a substitute?”

  “Not as far as I know,” she says. “Not for the FOG anyway. The components of TST are a little easier to come by. If we can get access to any decent medical facility, I should be able to make up a suitable substitute.”