We put him on the bed and Callum stopped struggling as I ran my hand up his forehead and into his hair. He gave me a faint smile before closing his eyes, and I wished I could crawl into the bed with him.
Addie slipped out of the room and Tony appeared in the doorway, gesturing for me to follow him. I stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind us.
“Here’s the thing,” he said quietly, taking a quick glance behind him at the humans in the kitchen. “You’ve got a lot of people in there who want to help you.”
I wouldn’t have guessed that from the conversations I’d heard, not to mention the way everyone was looking at me.
“But this sort of thing would be most effective if we had a couple weeks to plan,” he continued. “We could find the best way in and out, maybe try to get some of our people in key positions the night we do it. But . . .” He glanced at the bedroom door. “They don’t want me to tell you, but I don’t feel right about it.”
“Tell me what?” I asked, my stomach twisting into knots.
“The antidote has a window. If you wait too long, and he’s too far gone, it’s going to be useless.”
I swallowed down the lump in my throat, and when I spoke my voice sounded funny. “What’s the window? How long do I have?”
“You definitely don’t have a couple weeks,” he said. “Which is why they didn’t want me to tell you. I’d say you’re probably within the acceptable range, but you don’t have a lot of time. How long has he been like this?”
“He started feeling weird and shaking three days ago, I think. But he just started blacking out and losing it yesterday.”
Tony winced, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah. You don’t have a lot of time.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know. This is a new program; the medical team is still figuring it out themselves. They’re letting some of them run the course to see what happens, and it’s not good news. But I’d say . . . maybe not more than a day. You might have more, but it’s risky.”
I pressed a hand to the wall because the world had started to sway a little and I was worried I’d fall over. “So we’d need to go tonight.”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes briefly. “What is the point of this? Is HARC trying to get rid of us?”
“Oh no. They need you guys. But they need you as aggressive, mindless soldiers. They’re not getting that, particularly from the Under-sixties. This is the solution. Or it will be, if they ever get it to work right.”
They needed more of me, basically. Me, with a lot less free will. I took a deep breath and nodded at Tony. “Okay. I’m going tonight, whether you help me or not. You can tell them that.”
A smile twitched the edge of his mouth. “Yeah, I figured.”
He turned to go and I grabbed a corner of his shirt, making him stop. I crossed my arms over my chest and tried my best not to look at him suspiciously, but I was pretty sure I failed.
“Why are you freeing Reboots?” I asked. “What’s wrong with you?”
He laughed, rubbing a hand over his mouth. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Yes. You’ve been getting Reboots out and just letting them go, right?”
“We have been, yes. It was really the only solution.”
“Solution to what?”
“To getting rid of HARC. To actually have a shot at equal shares of food and medicine and everything HARC gives to the folks on the other side of the wall because they think we’re a lost cause. We have no chance against HARC with all of you on their side.”
“But HARC is keeping you safe,” I said, the mantra I’d heard a hundred times during my five years as a Reboot. “From us, from the viruses, from criminals . . .”
“Debatable,” Tony said, lifting an eyebrow. “They might have started out like that, but they’re certainly not doing that anymore. Most of those criminals”—he rolled his eyes when he said the word—“you went after were one of us. Or were just people who wanted to do something crazy like, I don’t know, keep their eight-year-old kid who died and came back to life. Everyone bought into this line HARC fed us about you all being these soulless creatures. Most humans have never even talked to a Reboot.”
He did have a point. The majority of humans only saw us when we were on assignment, when we were hunting them down. We were rarely allowed to say one word to them.
“Come on,” Tony said, jerking his head toward the kitchen. “If we’re going to do this tonight we need to start planning.”
I pushed open the bedroom door a sliver, but Callum was still, his eyes closed. I wanted to stay with him, but Tony was right. I couldn’t just bust into HARC and hope for the best. We needed a plan.
I followed Tony into the kitchen, gesturing for Addie to come as well. The humans were at the table, sitting on the counter, standing in clumps, and they all stopped talking when we walked in.
“Tonight or not at all,” Tony said. He put a hand on my shoulder and I jumped, bumping into Addie. “That’s Wren’s deal.”
“Good,” Desmond said. “No deal. Dumb idea anyway; let’s all go home.”
Tony shot him a look and Desmond sighed, leaning back against the wall and muttering to himself. Then they were all talking at once again, and Tony held up his hands.
“Hey!” he yelled. “Just calm down for a second. What are the absolute essentials? What has to happen for us to pull this off?”
“You have to take out the power so they can get in unseen,” a short, balding man piped up.
“But you said there were backup generators,” Addie said.
“There are,” the human replied. “But they take a minute, and you have a much better chance of getting in while the power is out.”
“Right,” Tony said. “You could probably get into the building before the power kicked on again.”
“We’d need to unlock the Reboots’ rooms first, right?” Addie asked. “They’ll all be locked in that time of night.”
“Yes,” Desmond said. “Control room on the fourth floor, and there will be armed guards in there. I’d suggest you go together to unlock them. Then Addie can run up to eight to get the Reboots out and Wren can go to the medical labs on seven.”
“And where are we all going to go once we escape?” I asked. “Are we just running and hoping for the best?”
Desmond let out a long, exaggerated sigh to let us know how he felt about that idea.
“Suggestion, Des?” Tony asked with a half smile.
“They can’t just run,” he said, throwing up his arms in annoyance. “Even if some of them make it, HARC will jump in their shuttles and kill half of them from the sky.”
“Good point,” Addie said, chewing on her lip. “Can we disable the shuttles?”
“If we have a few volunteers willing to do that, yes,” Tony said. “We could sneak in the garage and mess with the engines enough to at least delay them. We’d have to move fast, but I think we’d get most of them.”
The shuttles. HARC had big shuttles, transport shuttles they usually used to move large groups of human criminals around. It was hundreds of miles to the Reboot reservation, but if we got our hands on a few of those, we’d be there in a matter of hours.
“What if we just took the shuttles?” I asked.
“Sorry?” Tony asked.
“How hard are they to drive? What if we took a couple big ones, like the transport ones, and just flew out of there?”
“Uh . . . well, you could, I suppose,” Tony said. “They’re not hard to pilot. I could probably draw you guys a diagram and we could have a quick lesson. I imagine you’d crash on landing, but that’s not really a concern for Reboots.”
“Do they have a GPS tracking system?” Addie asked.
“Yeah. Not hard to remove, though. I could do it by the time y’all were ready to go.” His eyes darted around the room. “I’ll need help, though.”
The silence ticked by and Desmond crossed his arms over his chest with a frown. The rest of th
e humans seemed intent on avoiding my gaze, except for Gabe, who was lounging against the wall next to a blond guy who looked about our age.
“I’ll help,” Gabe said.
Tony scrunched his face up like he was going to object, but the blond boy interjected before he could. “Come on. You said we couldn’t go in the building. You never said anything about the garage.”
Desmond snorted. “You did say that.”
Tony rolled his eyes and gave the guys an amused look. “Fine. Gabe and Zeke, you’ll be with me.” He turned to Desmond. “Are you up for cutting the power? You could do it from several blocks away.”
“Yeah. I’ll do it.” He wasn’t thrilled about it, though.
“Okay.” Tony clapped his hands together. “Good. I’ve got a guy bringing us the schematic of the building, so we’ll go over that when he gets here. Do you two want to rest or anything? Food, maybe?”
My stomach jumped at the mere mention of food. “Food would be great if you have any.”
“Sure thing,” he said, pointing to the table. “Have a seat.”
Addie and I sat down at the kitchen table and most of the humans cleared out, going to sit in the living room or disappearing out the back door on errands. I kept a watch on Callum’s door, but no one went near it.
Tony put sandwiches in front of Addie and me. The bread was soft and fresh, the bean spread and vegetables inside delicious. He seemed pleased as I took giant bites, and I managed a thank-you in between chewing.
“You are very welcome. That one on the counter is for Callum if you want to bring it to him later.” He put a couple glasses of water on the table and headed for the humans in the living room. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Weird,” Addie muttered, shooting me a confused look.
“Right?” Let him know if we needed anything? Bizarre. “You don’t think they’re up to something, do you?”
She shook her head. “No. My dad wouldn’t have led us into a trap.” She twisted around and frowned at the humans. “I think they actually want to help us.”
I turned and followed her gaze to where Tony and Desmond were standing, heads close together as they talked.
“I think they mostly want to help themselves,” I said quietly. “But I’ll take it.”
THIRTY-ONE
ADDIE DECIDED TO REST AFTER LUNCH, SO TONY LET HER HAVE his room and suggested I take a nap as well. I declined. There was no way I would be able to sleep, not with Callum tied up in the other room and my stomach in knots.
Instead I headed down the hallway with Callum’s sandwich and peeked inside the guest room. He was on his side, his eyes fixed on the wall in front of him. His arms and legs were still bound.
“Is that uncomfortable?” I asked, crossing the room and putting the plate on the nightstand. “I can untie you while you eat if you want.”
He didn’t respond, so I knelt down next to the bed and ran my fingers into his hair. “Callum.”
He didn’t move an inch. His eyes were empty, and when I waved my hand in front of his face he didn’t even blink.
What if it was already too late? What if we’d already missed the window?
My heart was beating too loudly now. It was pounding in my ears, the only sound in the quiet room.
“Callum.” My voice was desperate as I shook his shoulder. The bed creaked under his weight as I shifted him.
Nothing.
That stare that saw nothing was too awful. I shook him harder, repeating his name as the ache in my chest grew. Tears were on my cheeks before I realized I was going to cry, and I pressed my hand to my mouth to stifle a sob. It came anyway, echoing through the bedroom, followed quickly by another. I’d thought of crying as a release, but the tears were almost painful. I wanted to stuff them back inside. My body refused to listen.
I let go of his shoulder and sank down on the floor. Maybe I should have run to get Tony or Addie and ask them if he was okay, but I was too scared. I didn’t want them to give me that sympathetic look again.
“Wren?”
My head popped up at the sound of Callum’s voice. He blinked at me, his brow lowered as he twisted his hands against the ropes.
“What’s wrong?”
I leaped onto the bed and untied his hands in seconds, pressing my head into his neck as he wrapped his arms around me. He nuzzled his cheek against my skin, his warm breath tickling my neck.
“I’m sorry,” I said, taking a deep breath.
“You don’t have to apologize for crying.”
“No, for all of this. For letting you attack that human and for breaking you out at a really terrible time. I should have checked first. I knew they were doing this to Under-sixties and I didn’t even think to check.”
“Yes,” he said, his voice tinged with amusement, “next time you risk your life saving me, could you please do proper planning beforehand? This is just unacceptable.”
I laughed, hugging him tightly with one arm.
“You don’t need to apologize,” he said, his lips brushing against my ear. “If anything I should thank you.”
“Please don’t. It will make me feel terrible.”
He chuckled, running his fingers under my chin until I turned my face up to him. He kissed me, which felt sort of like a thank-you, but it was one I didn’t mind. When he pulled away he gave me a sad little smile.
“Just don’t leave me like this, okay?”
I sniffled, lowering my eyes so I didn’t have to look at him.
“I don’t want them to make me into this . . .” He looked down at himself. “This crazy thing.” He planted a soft kiss on my cheek. “It’s like they won, you know?”
It was exactly like they’d won.
“I don’t want to kill more people.” He scrunched up his face. “Or worse, eat anyone. So, if it doesn’t work out, don’t just let me be like this, okay?”
I nodded, pressing my lips together to stop the tears. “Okay.”
Callum was quiet for a moment, his eyebrows lowered in thought. “And even if we don’t get the antidote, you should help them.” He nodded at the door. “Go to the reservation and get the other Reboots to help them, too.”
“The humans?”
“Yeah. You can’t let HARC win. Not after everything they’ve done. So even if I don’t . . . if I don’t make it, I think you should help them.”
He knew I had very little interest in helping the humans. All I wanted was for him to be better so we could get away from them and never come back. And I didn’t want to think about what I would do if Callum didn’t make it, but sticking around to join forces with humans was not on the top of my list.
“That won’t be an issue. You’ll be fine.”
“Wren, think about it at least. You shouldn’t let the fact that you’re a badass go to waste.”
I managed a laugh. “I will think about it.”
It was a lie. I wasn’t going to think about any scenario that didn’t include him.
Callum eventually faded away again, even though I could see him trying to fight it. I sat on the floor for a long time, until I couldn’t take those vacant eyes anymore. I refused to panic about it, so I tied him up and moved to the living room, where I spent the afternoon and early evening pacing back and forth.
The sun had just set, and I was anxious to head over to the facility, but Tony insisted the best time was very early morning. The facility had the least guards on duty between the hours of four and six a.m., and it was best to go near six, since a few lab personnel would be on duty by then. No one could tell me what the antidote looked like, so I might need a human to point it out.
Tony was at the kitchen table with about ten other humans, poring over the schematic of the Austin HARC facility. A larger group than I had expected had agreed to help us. A few had left, saying they were certain we’d all be dead by morning, but the rest seemed thrilled to have such an ambitious plan after years of trying to defeat HARC.
Gabe slipped through the front door
with Zeke, the blond boy from earlier. Gabe was holding a black canvas bag against his chest, and he nodded at Tony.
“I got them,” he said, dropping the bag on the couch and reaching inside. He pulled out several black guns and dumped odd-shaped yellow bullets onto the table. I frowned, leaning over to grab one of them.
“What is this?” I asked, turning the yellow plastic bullet around in my fingers. It had a tiny needle coming out of it.
“Tranquilizer darts,” Gabe said. “Tony doesn’t want you killing humans while you’re in there.”
I turned to Tony with raised eyebrows, and he leaned back in his chair to meet my gaze. I held up the yellow dart. “These things actually work? Quickly?”
“Within a couple seconds. Aim for the chest or arm or leg.”
“How long will they be out?” I asked.
“Hours. You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll give you your real gun back, but I don’t want you to use it in there. Most of those guys are just doing their job. And some of them are with us.”
I nodded, dropping the dart on the table. “Fine.”
“Did you find some helmets?” Tony asked.
“Yeah, Henry will be by soon with them,” Gabe replied.
Addie grabbed one of the tranq guns off the table and stuck a dart inside, studying the gun curiously. Gabe darted behind the couch and she snorted. “Oh, relax, human. I know how to use a gun.”
“Gabe,” he corrected, wincing as she pointed it at the wall behind Zeke.
“Come out from behind the couch, Gabe. I’m not going to shoot you. Unless you deserve it.”
He crept out of hiding, cautiously reaching for the gun. “I’ll just take that.”
Addie rolled her eyes as she handed it over, and I shot her an amused look.
“Hey.” I turned at the sound of Desmond’s voice. He plopped a ladle of something into a bowl. “Do you want dinner?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Then come and eat.”
I scurried into the kitchen, peering into the bowl. It was some sort of stew. I gave him a grateful look as I spooned some into my mouth. I hadn’t expected to be fed again.