The Delphi Effect (The Delphi Trilogy Book 1)

  Deo’s shock breaks suddenly. He lets out an anguished noise, then points his gun at Cregg, who’s on his back, still screaming. Deo fires, then turns and fires at Lucas, who is still right where we left him.

  I don’t know if Deo hits either target. Cregg is writhing on the floor, his shirt in flames. He makes a whimpering, almost mewling sound as he claws at the black cell phone case adhered to his chest. His pants are on fire too, but I guess the roll part of stop, drop, and roll is hard to implement when you’ve got a flaming cell phone stuck to your chest.

  “Let’s go!” I yell, over the protest of most of my hitchers. I’m pretty sure Jaden will back me, but the rest of them want me to snatch the gun from Deo and finish both Cregg and Lucas. But that wouldn’t be self-defense, and it wouldn’t be defending someone else. It would be murder. Probably justifiable murder, but regardless, I don’t want that on my conscience. I don’t want it on Deo’s conscience, either.

  We need to run. Most importantly, I need to run. If I’m moving, it will be easier to stay in control, to keep my head to myself.

  I take off through the open lab door. Deo seems torn, but he follows, slamming the door behind him. I wave Cregg’s ID at the access panel in the corridor, and the door opens to reveal the empty monitoring station across the hall.

  Dacia Badea stands a few steps in front of us, a shocked expression on her face. When Deo raises the gun, she doesn’t even seem to notice. Her focus is on the window, through which she can see Lucas, collapsed on the floor. She shoves me aside with her elbow and swipes her arm at the entrance to the lab.

  SHOOT HER!

  The Furies are screaming too, and it’s all I can do to maintain control. I reach out and grab the back of her shirt as she opens the door.

  “Give me your ID or Deo will shoot.”

  From the expression in Dacia’s eyes, I think this is the first time that Deo’s gun even registers. She calls me something I can’t translate, strips the security bracelet from her wrist, and hurls it toward my face as she yanks out of my grasp. Cregg calls out to her, but she doesn’t spare him a glance in her rush to get to Lucas.

  Before I can close the door, my hands freeze. I feel a whoosh as Oksana and the other two women leave. There’s the briefest hesitation, then Will follows.

  It’s different from all of the other times that hitchers left. Not like they’re moving on, but more like they’re simply moving the hell out. Like they’d rather stay here than stay with me.

  And I’m perfectly okay with that.

  “What’s wrong?” Deo asks.

  “Nothing.” I slam the door and lean against it for a second to get my bearings. “Let’s go.”

  Even though we run at full speed, the dark, cold corridor seems longer heading back than it did when I was walking this way with Cregg and Lucas last night. Maybe it’s because every muscle is tense, waiting for an alarm to go off, or for us to encounter one of the guards. We have all three bracelets, so I doubt Cregg and the others can get out on their own, but that won’t stop them from sounding an alarm. For that matter, if someone didn’t find a way to put Cregg out, his flaming body might trigger a fire alarm all by itself.

  The tunnel starts to tilt upward now, and the lights are getting brighter. I reach the door before Deo does and wave Cregg’s bracelet again, and then we’re in the hallway, just a few doors down from my room.

  As we pass, I hear a door open behind us. It’s Ashley.

  “Oh, thank God! How did you . . . ?” A quick shake of her head as she pulls her phone out. “Never mind. I have to tell Daniel and the others to abort.” She looks down at Cregg’s ID in my hand. “That should work on the elevators. Do you know where they are?”

  Daniel and the others? But there’s no time to ask. “Yes, I do.”

  “Then go. Get out of here!”

  I’m terrified that Timmons will be in his cubicle when we reach the monitoring station. But it’s as empty as the rest of the Highside.

  Well, except for Room 81. The noise starts when we’re a few yards from the door.

  thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump

  RUN RUN RUN, ANNA

  I hurry past, but then stop and look back at the door. Deo halts too when he realizes I’m not next to him.

  “What?”

  “You don’t hear that?”

  “Hear what?

  “It’s a little kid, Deo. A little boy, I think. And Jaden says—”

  Whoa! Hold up. No, no, no, no! Absolutely not.

  But you said they might not actually be moving the other patients. That they might—

  No. They won’t hurt the little ones. And, Anna, you cannot handle that kid. You cannot hide that kid. Believe me.

  He could be right. I remember Cregg’s face when he spoke about the kids here. His righteous indignation, like they were doing a service for these children.

  The door starts doing that weird thing again, almost like it’s pulsing into the hallway. Almost like a heartbeat.

  “A kid?” Deo says. “Are you sure? I don’t hear—”

  “You don’t see that? The door?”

  “No. Anna, we need to get the hell out of here.”

  Jaden echoes the sentiment, but it’s not his urging or Deo’s that gets my feet back into gear.

  RUNNNNNNN, ANNA! HURRY. BWEE-OM, BWEE-OM. GOGOGOGOGO.

  The door throbs in time with each syllable.

  Jaden is right. How do you hide a kid who can do that?

  So I run.

  All of the rooms are dark, and the monitoring station is empty as we turn into the hallway between the testing center and the cafeteria. I grab Deo’s arm and pull him into the corridor with the elevators.

  “Up, right?”

  I nod, really hoping Jaden’s comments about this being a rabbit warren are correct and we’re not headed for an even higher floor in some windowless building. The elevator door slides open instantly. We hit the up button again and the car begins to ascend.

  Deo leans against the side of the elevator, catching his breath. “Whew. I thought someone would have sounded the alarm by . . .” He falls silent as we both hear the alarm blaring below us. “Guess I jinxed it.”

  All I can think is that the alarm sounds exactly like the noise—bwee-om, bwee-om—that the kid in Room 81 was making.

  The light in the elevator goes out a few seconds later. I stifle a scream, expecting us to halt or drop suddenly. But we keep going up.

  When the door opens, I look out into a room that’s as dark as the elevator. I can just barely make out a door directly in front of us with another security panel.

  I step out into the hallway. Deo doesn’t follow immediately. He’s standing in the elevator doorway, stripping off his sweatshirt.

  “What are you doing? It’s freezing in here.”

  He wads the shirt into a ball and shoves it into the gap so that the elevator can’t close. “Maybe this will slow them down a little.”

  “When did you get so smart?”

  “Born this way. You’re just getting more observant in your old age.” He tugs my arm and we go through the door.

  “You got that flashlight thing on your phone?” Deo whispers.

  “Yeah.” I pull it out of my pocket. As my eyes adjust, I detect a very faint hint of moonlight off to the right.

  “Does that way look brighter to you?”

  “A little,” he says. “Come on.”

  I turn on the flashlight app and we head toward the light.

  But the moonlight isn’t coming in through windows or doors. Well, that’s not entirely true. Some light is shining in through the windows, which are big gaping holes in the wall across from us. Most, though, is coming from the utter lack of a roof on this side of the building. Moonlight pours down, illuminating a large room filled with piles of debris.

  Deo curses as he surveys the room. “Looks like the place was bombed.”

  “No. More like a fire that started on an upper floor.” I nod toward the back where the pla
ster has burned away, exposing the brick behind it.

  A lot of the junk seems to have come from the collapsed level above us, but there’s an empty bottle of peach schnapps and some cigarette butts that suggest teenagers may have been exploring. The room smells slightly of mold and smoke, but overall, the air is fresh. Trees, a hint of water, like maybe it’s rained recently. It’s a nice change after two days of breathing recycled air.

  There’s a noise in front of us, like something shifting in the pile of junk. Deo whips Lucas’s gun up and points it toward the sound. Until now, I hadn’t even realized that he was still carrying it.

  After a few seconds, he lowers the pistol. “Probably just an animal.”

  I tap the phone to launch the flashlight again, then shine it in front of us. Nothing moves, and if there are any eyes staring back at us, they’re well hidden by the rubble.

  Shining the light around, I search for a path through the junk. I can’t get closer to the windows, but from here, I’d guess that the ground drops off sharply on this side of the building. It looks like we’re fairly high up. There’s a road or maybe a bridge off in the distance, and every few seconds another car drives by.

  I don’t see any way out except for the way we came in.

  As I turn in that direction, a light shines back at us. Deo and I both gasp, though my gasp is very nearly a scream. It’s only a dim reflection, though, and as we get closer, I realize my light’s bouncing off a blackboard.

  Turn back!

  BEWARE

  Right beneath the chalkboard, there’s another empty bottle, along with an open square foil wrapper.

  “Hmph,” Deo says, shaking his head. “Looks like someone had a little ghost-hunting party in here. Because nothing gets your sexy on like a crumbling building.”

  We turn back into the hallway and work our way past the still-open elevator, me holding out the phone flashlight, and Deo holding out the gun. The alarm grows louder as we approach. At the other end of the hallway, looking left and right, we again have pitch-black in one direction competing with a faint glow in the other.

  “Could be another caved-in roof . . . ,” Deo says, but we head that way regardless. It’s still the more logical alternative to going farther into the building, and the continued blaring of the alarm tells me we don’t have much time.

  Once again, we end up in a section that’s too cluttered to navigate. Here, the ceiling hasn’t collapsed entirely. You can still see a partial floor above, and some sections of roof above that. But the place must have been abandoned years ago. A branch from one of the tall trees outside has grown into the room. It looks like a skeletal arm, reaching toward what’s left of the wall.

  The idea of going back toward the elevator yet again, with the alarm still sounding, sets off a panicked flutter in my chest. But then I see Deo, his bare back in front of me in the moonlight. That triggers a memory. Trees, sky . . . running.

  I’d completely forgotten about the vision.

  “It’s okay,” I say, as much to myself as to Deo. “We’re going to get out of here. I saw it in one of Jaden’s flashes.”

  There’s something else at the very edge of my memory that seems a little less encouraging, but I can’t grasp it. And we don’t have all day for me to stand here trying.

  We go back toward the darker end of the second hallway. It opens into a foyer, and if not for the flashlight, I think there’s a good chance we’d have missed the staircase.

  “Well, that explains a lot. We’re on the second floor.” I shine the light at our feet, and we hurry down the curved stairway toward the door below. The stairs are covered with chunks of rock and other hazards. There’s a metal railing, but it seems to be rusted out in a few spots and I’m not sure I trust it. These stairs would be perilous enough in daylight, moving at a normal pace.

  “What kind of idiot builds an elevator that only opens on the second floor of the building?” Deo grumbles, when we pause about midway to navigate around a large pile of debris.

  “I don’t know. Maybe someone once had an office up there? And maybe not everyone who worked in the building knew there was a facility belowground?”

  “Wonder how long ago it was torched?”

  “No clue. But I think I can make a pretty good guess as to how it happened, after the fire we just saw in the lab.”

  “Um . . . Anna? I saw what happened in the lab. You, on the other hand, weren’t simply watching. You were doing it. How the hell . . .”

  “Didn’t only pick up Will. Oksana. Two other women, as well. Wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that one of them did all of this when she was alive.”

  He kicks one of the larger rocks out of our path and turns back to me, clearly worried. “And you think you can control her? Or them? Because you didn’t really look like you were in control.”

  “I couldn’t back there. But I don’t have to. They stayed behind in the lab. So did Will. It’s just Jaden now.”

  Deo lets out an audible sigh of relief, followed by a bitter chuckle. “You were trying to control five people in your head. I couldn’t even handle one.”

  “It’s not the same thing, D. Not the same thing at all. My invaders were actually on our side. Cregg on the other hand—”

  “Whatever. Let’s just get out of here.”

  The windows on the lower level are barricaded. Only tiny ribbons of light shine through. When we reach the main level, I work my way to the door and twist the knob. The door opens a fraction of an inch, then stops. No security panels here, just plain, old-fashioned boards and nails.

  Deo backs up a few steps and rams it with his shoulder. The door creaks, but that’s about it.

  He takes another try, with pretty much the same result.

  Then I hear Jaden.

  I got this. Probably. I mean . . . I’m used to a bigger body, but the principle’s the same.

  I’m reluctant to give Jaden control. He didn’t seem nearly as angry about my refusal to shoot as the others were, but I’m pretty sure Jaden also wanted me to pull that trigger.

  Yeah. I think I’d have killed them, but, hey . . . you know what you can live with and what you can’t. And even if that wasn’t the case, I ain’t stupid enough to go back up there.

  Okay, then. But hurry.

  I grab Deo’s bare arm as he’s backing up to charge the door again. “Hold up, D. Let me take a stab at it.”

  He raises an eyebrow, and gives me a look that I’d definitely find insulting if I had time to stop and think about it. But he steps aside.

  Jaden takes a deep breath once he’s in control and moves me forward a few steps. I feel my knee lifting up, high enough that it should throw me off balance. But it doesn’t. He twists slightly and thrusts my foot toward the door.

  I hear nails popping, but the door remains in place.

  We back away, and he kicks once more. Harder. This time, the door swings open, but I also feel a sharp twinge in my ankle . . . the same one I twisted jumping out of Aaron’s car.

  But we’re out. That’s all that matters. And Jaden slides back gradually this time, rather than the quick exit that left me bent over a trash can.

  Deo’s expression is a little less dubious now. “Whoa. Short Stuff got some new moves.”

  “Yeah. New moves, but same body, unfortunately.”

  “You okay?”

  I nod and test my weight on the ankle as we move outside. It’s tender, but not too bad. I’ll be able to run, although I doubt I’ll make top speed.

  Illegible graffiti is scrawled on the four columns in front of us. The fire that blazed through the building couldn’t take out the sections made of stone. Like the columns, the steps are still standing, although some sections seem to have been chipped away.

  “Which way?” Deo asks.

  I scan the area, trying to find something that seems familiar from the vision. Off to the right, I see water in the distance. To the left is the clearing, with buildings on both sides and a line of trees beyond.

/>   “That way.”

  As we run, I discover why these visions landed Jaden in a psychiatric center. It’s like being trapped in a dream.

  I hear the noise of the helicopter—I’d forgotten that part entirely. But some part of my brain still goes through the motions of thinking it’s an airplane before recognizing the sound of the rotor.

  When I turn back and see the man running toward me, part of my mind knows it’s not Cregg.

  I know it’s Daniel.

  But the section of my brain that controls my mouth doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo. “Faster, Deo! I think it’s Cregg.”

  I hear the man yelling my name, and that other part of my brain, the part that isn’t in control, recognizes Daniel’s voice. But that doesn’t stop me from running in a blind panic, terrified that Cregg is going to catch us.

  I know I’m going to trip as we begin to run downhill. I can even see the street ahead, and the lights of the car driving past, just beyond a layer of brush and briars. But I can’t slow down. Can’t stop myself from looking up at the power lines. Can’t stop myself from stumbling, and can’t tell whether it’s a damned root or a rock that trips me.

  I know it’s Daniel behind me, but I still feel the fear rush through me when his hand closes around my elbow. I still try to scream for Deo to keep running, but all that comes out is Deo’s name.

  “You’re going the wrong—”

  The gun is loud. Not as loud in the open as it was when Deo fired it in the lab, and it’s also competing with the screech of brakes from the car on the road, maybe twenty feet below us.

  But it still echoes.

  And then Deo is yelling an anguished “No!” as Daniel and I slide the rest of the way down the hill.