Reboot

  I felt his hand on my cheek and I looked up at his bruised face. He gave me a little smile. He opened his mouth to say something, then frowned as Officer Mayer began yelling again.

  I gently removed the com from his ear and set it on the ground.

  “What a rebel,” he said quietly. He scooted closer and gathered me into his arms. I felt like a little kid in his lap, but when I pressed my face to his chest and smelled his fresh skin through his clothes, I didn’t mind.

  “I’m sorry,” I repeated. “I was useless—”

  “No, you weren’t,” he said, running his fingers beneath my helmet and up into my hair. I liked his warm fingers there, liked the sensations they sent down my neck. “I’m sorry about Ever. She was your best friend?”

  I’d never thought of her that way. “Yes,” I said.

  He wrapped both arms around my waist, holding me tightly. I could hear the muffled sounds of Officer Mayer yelling in the com from a few feet away, and I closed my eyes and blocked the sound. No one could see or hear us. I had been under the watch of a HARC guard every minute of the past five years.

  I felt free.

  It was a false freedom, of course, since my tracker gave away my exact location, but I sank into Callum for a moment and pretended.

  When I pulled away he tried to bring me back, but I shook my head and gestured to his com.

  “You should put it in,” I said. “If you don’t report they’ll send in more Reboots. It’ll be bad if they send more in and we’re alive.”

  He sighed and reluctantly stuck the com in his ear. “Callum Twenty-two with Wren One-seventy-eight. Assignment secure. Lissy One-twenty-four and Raul Ninety-three are dead.” He listened and looked around. “All right.” He grabbed his helmet, plunking it on his head and adjusting the camera. “See? She’s fine. Her com just got smashed.” Callum winked at me. He knew exactly how that had happened.

  He paused for a moment, then looked at me sadly.

  “Can’t you send—” He sighed. “All right.” He jerked his head toward Ninety-three and Lissy. “They want us to bring them back.”

  I nodded, beating down the disgust. “Yeah, standard procedure when Reboots die in the field. I’ve got them.”

  “I can do it, Wren—”

  “It’s fine,” I said, attaching a leash to Ninety-three’s wrists, then Lissy’s. “You get him.”

  Callum secured Gregor, a frown crossing his face as he hauled the Reboot to his feet.

  “No.”

  I frowned at him in confusion.

  “No,” he repeated into his com.

  “What are they saying?” I asked.

  “Nothing. You sure you got them? I can take one.”

  “It’s fine. Are they telling you to do something?”

  “Nope. Let’s go.” He nudged Gregor forward.

  “Callum, you can’t just ignore them.”

  He cast an amused smile back at me. “Come on. Everything’s okay.”

  I doubted that, but I trudged after him, dragging the two dead Reboots behind me.

  Leb ran around the corner, coming to a stop when he spotted us. He winced as his gaze fell on me, and I wiped at my face and found blood.

  “Where’s your gear?” he asked.

  “Smashed,” I replied.

  He pulled his hand com out of his pocket and lifted it to his lips as he turned his back to us. “I have Twenty-two and One-seventy-eight. Smashed gear. Heading back now.”

  Callum and I piled the adult Reboot, Lissy, and Ninety-Three into the cargo shuttle and headed back to our own. We plopped down in our seats and Leb settled in across from us as the shuttle lifted off the ground.

  Callum let out an annoyed sigh, giving his helmet a shove so the camera pointed up at the ceiling. He took his com out of his ear and sat on it.

  “They won’t shut up,” he said, to our horrified looks.

  “What are they—” I stopped, glancing at Leb as the shuttle lifted off.

  “There aren’t any other camera or audio feeds in here, if yours are gone. Just his,” Leb said. He nodded to the com in his pocket. “They can’t hear everything on mine. It mutes unless I’m using it.”

  Callum looked from him to me in surprise.

  “What are they saying?” I asked, ignoring the look.

  “They told me to kill Gregor.”

  I gasped, clapping my hand over my mouth to stop the wave of nausea that crashed over me.

  “You shouldn’t have done that, kid,” Leb said. “They did not sound happy.”

  Leb’s sympathetic tone made the pounding in my stomach worse, and I forced my hand away from my mouth and gripped my seat instead.

  “You can’t just disobey an order,” I said, my voice shaking.

  “I can, and I did. They can’t make me do that.”

  “But you knew! I told you it was a capture-if-possible, kill-if-necessary mission.”

  “It wasn’t necessary. He was contained. The only time it’s necessary is in self-defense. They can’t make me kill someone.”

  “But—”

  But they’ll kill you.

  I couldn’t say the words to him.

  “I know what they might do to me,” he said softly. “I’m not killing anyone for them.”

  I sprung out of my chair, not sure what I intended to do until I smacked his head. He lifted his arms to defend himself as I swung again, my rage at his stupidity burning a hole through my stomach.

  I wanted to scream at him, to ask him how he could be so thoughtless when I had just lost her, but no words would come out of my mouth. My throat had tightened painfully.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, trying to catch my hands as I halfheartedly hit him.

  “One-seventy-eight,” Leb said. I felt his touch on my arms, pulling me backward, and I let him, my shoulders sagging.

  “I’m sorry,” Callum repeated, his eyes big and pleading. “Don’t be mad. I just couldn’t.”

  I turned away, watching as Leb sat down in his seat again with a sigh.

  His gaze met mine and he took in a sharp breath, barely shaking his head.

  He could tell what I was thinking.

  I leaned down and put my hands on either side of Leb’s chair. He pressed himself into the wall.

  “Can you help us?” I whispered.

  “No,” he said automatically.

  Out of the corner of my eye I could see Callum leaning in, trying to hear us, so I shot him a look. He sank back into his chair.

  “Can you help just him?”

  “No.”

  “Please. They’re going to kill him.”

  A frown crossed his face. “I’m sorry about that, but even if I wanted to help, I’d need some time. Time he doesn’t seem to have.”

  “I think I can convince Officer Mayer to let him continue training. I’ll take the blame. Tell him I didn’t prepare him properly.”

  “Then he’ll be fine.”

  “No, he won’t,” I whispered. “How long do you think he has here, really? He’ll disobey again and they’ll eliminate him.” Or a human would kill him. Or HARC would start giving him shots.

  Leb’s gaze turned to Callum for a moment. “I can’t. It’s too risky.”

  “Please. I’ll do whatever you want. Name it.”

  The deep frown on his face slipped as something crossed his eyes. I held my breath as he considered, but the frown returned and he dropped his eyes from mine.

  “No.” He said it firmly as the shuttle hit the ground. “Get in your seat.”

  Of course not. What did I have to trade, anyway? I could think of nothing a human would want from a Reboot.

  I sat down as the shuttle door opened to reveal a furious Officer Mayer.

  “Both of you, in my office. Now.”

  SEVENTEEN

  OFFICER MAYER GLARED AT US FROM HIS DESK CHAIR, HIS face red.

  “Sit,” he ordered, and we did. “You.” He looked at me. “That was the worst field assignment I’ve ever seen from you. I
swear sometimes I thought you were just standing there watching.”

  I swallowed, not sure what to say, as that was entirely accurate.

  “You.” He turned to Callum. “You disobeyed a direct order and took your com out in the shuttle. Was there something you needed to say that you didn’t want us to hear?”

  “No, I was just tired of you yelling at me,” Callum mumbled.

  Officer Mayer slammed his fist on his desk. “You do not get to be tired! If I want to yell at you I will yell at you! Did your trainer not tell you to get in line? Did she not say that you were to follow all orders?”

  “Yes,” Callum replied.

  “Then why shouldn’t I eliminate you?”

  “I don’t want to kill anyone,” Callum said quietly.

  “I did not ask you to kill a person; I asked you to kill a Reboot. A crazy Reboot who killed two of your friends. I would think you would be glad to do it.”

  Callum shook his head.

  “Then we should eliminate you.” He nodded his head, like it was decided, and I felt like someone had just put their hand around my throat.

  “No, that isn’t—”

  “I wasn’t talking to you,” Officer Mayer snapped at me before turning back to Callum. “You were warned and you chose not to follow a direct command. I don’t see any improvement, and unfortunately there is no room here for Reboots who don’t perform well.”

  “But he is better,” I said, ignoring the glare Officer Mayer gave me as I spoke out of turn again. “He was the one who completed the assignment tonight. If it weren’t for him I’d probably be dead and the assignment would have gotten away.”

  Officer Mayer pressed his lips together, looking from me to Callum, and I felt a tiny spark of hope amid my panic.

  “And I didn’t prepare him properly for a kill assignment,” I said.

  “Why not?”

  “I’m not used to training such a low number. I didn’t realize he’d be so emotional about it.” The lie slid out of my mouth easily. Had I thought about it a little more, I would have known Callum wouldn’t be okay with killing. “It’s my fault.”

  “It’s not—”

  “You be quiet until you’re spoken to,” Officer Mayer snapped at Callum. He turned to me again. “Should I eliminate you instead?”

  I swallowed, although that comment wasn’t entirely unexpected, considering I’d just told him I’d screwed up. “I think if we continue training, he’ll get better at following orders.”

  “So you don’t think I should eliminate you, then.” Officer Mayer had the tiniest smile on his face, and I was struck by the sudden urge to smack it away. He was enjoying watching me squirm.

  “I would rather you didn’t, sir.”

  He let out a long, exaggerated sigh as he sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked from me to Callum for several agonizing seconds, the only noise in the room the hum of his computer.

  Finally, he waved his hand. “Fine. Twenty-two, go to your quarters. One-seventy-eight, stay a minute.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief as Callum trudged out of the room. Officer Mayer stood up, gathering a few papers and his computer into his hands.

  “I’m sending you two on a kill assignment as soon as we locate the other adult Reboot,” he said. “We’ve been tracking the other one for several days, so it shouldn’t be long. If Twenty-two refuses to perform the assignment again, you’ll eliminate him.”

  A flash of rage hit me so hard I almost gasped. It burned so strongly in my chest that I clenched my fists together and stared at my lap to keep myself from jumping up and snapping his neck.

  I would eliminate him?

  “You need to do it out in the field. This facility is . . . restless tonight after that crazy girl got herself killed.”

  That crazy girl. My best friend.

  I could hear the snap it would make in my head. Snap.

  He gestured for me to stand and I did, my legs shaking. He opened his office door.

  “We’ll say a human did it. Last thing we need is another elimination. We’ve had too many lately.”

  Snap.

  Snap.

  Snap.

  Officer Mayer gestured for me to follow as he strolled into the hallway. “You gave it your best shot,” he said, turning to walk away. “But he’s bringing you down, too. We need to stop this nonsense.”

  I watched his back as he strode off. I could do it so quickly. He’d be dead before he hit the ground. Then I’d be dead a few minutes later. Perhaps only a few seconds later, depending on how far away the guards were.

  I forced myself to move in the opposite direction. I certainly couldn’t help Callum if I was dead.

  I opened the door to the stairwell and stopped next to Callum, who stood in the dark alone.

  Pound.

  Pound.

  Pound.

  I turned toward the noise, coming from one floor down. The floor where the Reboots slept.

  “What is that?” Callum asked.

  I descended the stairs, gesturing for him to come with me. I pushed the door open and stepped onto the eighth floor.

  Pound.

  Pound.

  Pound.

  It came from my right, the girls’ wing.

  “Why are they doing that?” Callum whispered.

  “Ever did that,” I replied. “When she . . .”

  When she went crazy.

  Had they drugged them all? What good were Reboots if they were all totally insane?

  “Get to your quarters,” a guard barked.

  I entered the girls’ wing and stopped. In almost every room both girls were out of bed, methodically pounding on the wall.

  Their eyes followed me as I walked to my room.

  They weren’t drugged.

  They were rebelling.

  EIGHTEEN

  I SAT AT THE EDGE OF THE TRACK AND WATCHED CALLUM RUN the next morning. Even after the pounding stopped I barely slept, my eyes constantly drifting back to Ever’s empty bed. I couldn’t run today.

  I wondered, if a human had helped her get out, would she have survived? Would she have improved once outside of HARC? Or would she have gotten worse?

  Escape had never appealed to me, even when I heard about the rebels and the supposed Reboot reservation. The outside world was filled with humans who hated us, and a government set up to enslave or kill us. Outside, as a human, I had starved, caught several diseases, and ended up shot. Inside, I was fed regularly, clothed, and given a place to sleep.

  But now, escape was all I could think of.

  Rosa was surrounded by an electrified fence. Even if a Reboot could find and get rid of his tracker, he still had to find a way over or under the fence.

  Going over it would be a little painful.

  That was if we actually made it there. Armed guards patrolled the city line on every side, and sharpshooters were stationed in the towers strategically placed every half mile or so.

  My plan so far was to run like hell, hope not to get shot in the head, and climb an electrified fence.

  It was not the best plan.

  I watched as Callum rounded the track in front of me, his breathing steady. He’d improved in almost every area. He was faster, stronger, more confident. His body was tighter, his movements sharp and controlled.

  But I should have known he would never live up to the HARC standards. Even if he’d overcome his greatest obstacle—his sad little twenty-two minutes—he wasn’t built to follow orders. He had too many questions. Too many opinions.

  I had no idea how to save him without getting rid of our trackers. And there was no way to find a tracker without a HARC tracker locator. I’d never even seen one of those. I’d be surprised if they kept it in the same building with Reboots.

  I needed someone who knew where those locators were. I needed Leb.

  Relying on a human made my stomach clench. There was no reason he would want to help me and no reason I should trust him.

  I
pressed my hand to my forehead and forced my eyes away from Callum. I couldn’t think straight when I looked at him. I was nothing but a pathetic knot of emotions and I couldn’t think of what Leb needed, what he wanted, what a human couldn’t—

  His daughter.

  He wanted his daughter.

  They promised to help my daughter, he had said. They lied.

  I slowly got to my feet, excitement swirling through my stomach and up to my chest. I had to find him. Now.

  “Stop!” I called to Callum.

  His chest heaved as he paused on the track and gave me a curious look.

  “Come on,” I said with a wave of my hand.

  I rushed out the doors and down the hall, Callum’s footsteps behind me. Leb was on duty today in the gym, and I had to get to him as quickly as possible. Officer Mayer would find us a kill assignment soon. I didn’t have much time.

  I rounded the corner and pushed open the door to the gym, scanning the room to find Leb. He was leaning against a wall, pretending he hadn’t noticed me.

  “Push-ups,” I said to Callum, pointing to the floor.

  He dropped down without comment, but his eyes followed me as I took a few steps toward Leb. The officer shook his head slightly. He didn’t want me talking to him.

  Too bad.

  I took a quick glance around the gym. Hugo and Ross were on the other side, engrossed in drilling their newbies. The rest of the Reboots were training or talking. I moved a little closer to Leb.

  “Yeah, he is improving,” I said loudly. I hoped whoever was watching the cameras didn’t notice Leb hadn’t actually asked me a question.

  He stared stone-faced at me. He wasn’t playing.

  I turned to face Callum. “He’s much faster now,” I continued to Leb. I ducked my head and focused on the ground. “Your daughter,” I whispered.

  The silence stretched on for too long. There were about ten other Reboots in the gym, and for several seconds there was nothing but the sounds of fists smashing into bodies.

  “What about her?” Leb finally mumbled.

  “I can get her out.”

  He said nothing. He was so quiet that I finally peeked over my shoulder at him and found his face stricken, almost horrified. I might as well have just told him I was going to kill his daughter, not rescue her.