Nothing happened.
With a giant crack, the Reg smashed his head against the window. It was reinforced plastic, so it only cracked and dented inward, but a couple more hits like that, and he’d make it through and get to Adrien. The image of Milton’s crushed skull flashed in my mind.
There was no more time to try accessing my power. I reached over to the front seat and grabbed the weapon holstered at Adrien’s hip.
“Open the top,” I yelled. Adrien didn’t look my way, but he reached forward and clicked a switch. The window started lifting up and backward, creating a crazy rush of air that almost knocked the weapon out of my hand. I managed to keep a grip and pushed the trigger. A burst of red light flared straight into the Reg’s face with enough momentum that he was blown backward. He didn’t release the metal shell as he tumbled down. The duo’s hood peeled off with him, leaving the engine underneath exposed.
Still the Reg held on.
Adrien flipped the switch so the roof sealed shut again, then swung the steering stick back and forth in a zigzag. We could only see the Reg’s hand, gripping the shredded metal of the hood, but the rest of his body bobbed below, his weight still throwing us off balance. He wasn’t letting go, no matter how much we swerved and twisted.
“Hold on to something,” Adrien said. I was already nauseated from the movement, but I gripped the armrests.
Adrien jerked the stick full backward, and we headed straight up into the sky. My head knocked against the back of my helmet at the sudden movement. Then he rammed it back down and sent us in a spiraling freefall. My stomach dropped and I clung to the armrests, trying to contain the terrified scream that rose in my throat at the sight of the rapidly approaching ground. As we spun, the centrifugal force pushed the flap of hood metal outward. The Reg flew out with it away from the body of the duo, but he still held on. His added weight threw us into an even more intense spin.
After a few more dizzy, chaotic seconds, the piece of hood the Reg gripped so tightly ripped off with a screeching tear, and he was flung off into the air.
The vehicle rocked heavily as the Reg fell free, and Adrien’s knuckles were white on the steering stick as he attempted to right us. But we still spiraled downward and the ground was so close that I could begin to make out the leaves on trees.
“Adrien!” I shouted, bracing my hands against the back of his seat.
He strained with his whole body to pull the stick backward.
My heart lodged in my throat as I waited for the impact, but finally we pulled up out of the spin, and after another few moments we were flying straight again.
It was suddenly bizarrely quiet.
“We made it,” I finally whispered, barely believing it.
But Adrien shook his head. “We’ve only just begun.”
Chapter 3
ADRIEN’S BACK WAS RIGID as we flew. The only hint that he was rattled at all was a slight tremble in his hand as he punched through an interface cube that rose as a projection from the duo’s console.
I looked behind us. The lab was only a square dot now with the outline of city buildings jutting up behind it in the far distance. No one was following us.
I looked back at Adrien. I could see in the small mirror that his face was taut with focus and his thick hair was matted around his forehead. I’d never really seen him like this. I’d known Adrien as the quiet voice talking to me late at night in my room about beauty and the human soul, not as Adrien the soldier. I’d known vaguely that he used to run missions like this all the time. He’d lived on the run and then joined up with the Rez when he was fourteen. But seeing him in action was something totally different.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He pressed his lips together tighter. He looked almost angry. For a second, I thought he wasn’t going to answer me, but he finally said, “I should have been there earlier. I was so stupid. I should have found a way to get an encoded message out. I could have warned Milton not to come into work today and gotten you out another way. Now he’s gone, and I almost lost you—” He stopped and clenched his jaw like he was physically holding words back. “I should have done things differently.”
“It’s not your fault, Adrien.” I tried to reach out to touch his shoulder, but my strap held me back.
“I can see the future,” he said, his voice hard. “Whose fault is it but mine?”
“Without you that Inspector would have captured me. You saved me.”
His jaw stayed just as tight. I couldn’t tell if he believed me.
“We’re not safe yet,” he finally said. “Those Regs will be calling for an armada to find us,” he said. “The duo’s cloaking mechanism isn’t built for long runs, but the beta site’s nearby. I should be able to get us there before it wears off.” His voice dropped. “At least I can do this one thing right.”
I stared at him a moment longer in the mirror. My eyes traced the line of his cheekbone down to his strong jaw, clenched in frustration. I took a breath, determined to find the right words to comfort him, but nothing came.
My stomach churned from the speed and sudden drops as we flew on. I squeezed my eyes shut and put a hand on my stomach to try to settle it. I hated the sky. I’d grown up in an underground city in the Community and didn’t think I’d ever get used to the empty expanse above. It was unnatural—all that space. And now we were suspended in it, with only the duo’s whirring engine keeping us from crashing back to earth.
Adrien was quiet for the next half hour as we flew, but he kept running scans for the attack transports who could find us if our cloak wore off. I had time to finally think and process everything that had just happened. I shivered with the realization that Chancellor Bright was enacting her plan. She was the Underchancellor of Defense now. I knew she’d never intended to remain the Chancellor of the Academy for long, but I hadn’t expected her to move so fast. She’d already begun her quiet takeover, and, with her glitcher Gift of compulsion, none of the Uppers in power would see her coming.
I remembered the forced sincerity on her face when she’d offered for me to join her. She promised a utopia with glitchers in charge instead of the corrupt Uppers. I’d even been tempted, until I realized her plan only replaced one oppressive government with another, never changing anything about the Link system that enslaved millions. I’d rejected her offer. And barely escaped with my life.
“Hold on,” Adrien said, breaking into my thoughts. “We’re gonna make our descent now.”
I gripped the black armrests hard as we dropped again, but it wasn’t a quick dive this time. We kept falling and falling until I was sure the engine had failed. I opened my eyes just as the duo slowed suddenly, jerking me forward in my harness strap.
We’d dropped down into a forest. Green surrounded us on all sides, and Adrien slowly navigated the duo through the trees. Leaves slapped at the windows. It was as if the very air sprouted green. Leafy bushes and gigantic trees surrounded us, from above and on every side and the ground below.
I leaned away from the window, remembering the last time I’d been in a forest. It was when I had first met Adrien, six months ago. He’d tried to rescue me from the Community, only to discover once we left the underground city that I was deadly allergic to almost everything on the Surface. I looked down at the rip in my suit, then back out the window. I could only imagine all the billions of allergen particulates surrounding us. If something happened to the last underlayer of my suit here and I was exposed …
“The trees,” I whispered, leaning closer to the glass in spite of my bad memories. “They’re huge.” The trunks were gigantic, several times wider than a person. I’d never seen anything like it.
“It’s old-growth forest,” Adrien said. “This area’s been pretty much left alone over the last two hundred years. Look, you can barely see the sky, the canopy’s so thick overhead.”
I looked up through the top of the windshield, and he was right. Occasionally I’d catch a glimpse of blue, but for the most part the tops
of the trees spread a dense canopy. I swallowed hard. I wasn’t sure which was worse—being in the duo up in the open sky or being here surrounded on all sides by deadly greenery.
“But they’re so much bigger than last time.”
“Different forest,” he said. “We’re on the other side of the Sector.”
That meant my home, and my brother, were thousands of miles away. My stomach dropped. Markan was safe for now. I had to focus on that. He was only thirteen, young enough that he’d still be a drone in the underground Community, numb to all thought and emotion. He wouldn’t have felt anything about my disappearance. And if he did become a glitcher like me and wake up, it wouldn’t happen for a couple of years. Most importantly, he was still five years away from getting the adult V-chip, the device that would silence his emotions forever. I had to get him out before then, or he’d be lost.
But I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to rescue him. The Chancellor was hunting me, and even if she weren’t, how was I going to be able to infiltrate the tightly guarded Community? Especially since I couldn’t even count on my power to help me.
Another branch smacked into the window, right near where the Reg had smashed his face. Several long spider cracks spread out from the site.
“Sorry,” Adrien said, gripping the control stick harder and pulling back on it. Our speed slowed more. “There we are.” He slowly came to a stop with the duo hovering over an open spot of ground. A woman appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, carrying a heavy green cloth with her.
She made wide gesturing motions. Adrien popped the lid.
“Out, out, out. I need to cover it so they can’t catch its heat signature.”
Adrien jumped nimbly over the side of the duo to the ground, then held up a hand for me. I took it and hurled myself over. I landed much less gracefully, my thick boots thudding into the ground and sinking a few inches in.
Adrien quickly grabbed the thick cloth in the woman’s hands and they spread it over the vehicle.
“Were you tracked?” she asked.
“No. I think our cloak held just long enough.”
“There,” the woman smiled and let out a breath. Her brown hair was pulled up in a loose bun and she had warm brown eyes. “You took a long time. You don’t know how relieved I was to see the duo’s beacon light. Though I’m surprised it still works, this thing looks so mangled.” She gestured to the ripped-up hood.
“We barely got away.” Adrien’s said, his voice quiet. “And Milton didn’t make it.”
Jilia’s eyebrows furrowed together. “I didn’t know him, but I’m sorry.” She pulled Adrien into a loose hug. “It’s so good to see you.” She was so short, the top of her head only reached the middle of his chest. She pulled back and turned to me. “And you must be Zoe. I’m Jilia, but everyone calls me Doc.”
“Hi.” I tried to take a step toward her, but my boot was stuck. I tugged a little harder and heard a slight suction noise as the ground released it. The bottom half of my boot was covered in a mixture of green and brown sludge. “Ugh,” I muttered, just as I heard a gentle tap, tap, tap on the rounded top of my helmet. I looked up and several drops of water landed on my face mask.
“That’s springtime for you. Mud and near constant rain. Hurry, let’s get you inside and dry.” She started walking.
Adrien took my hand and we made our way forward through the woods. My feet suctioned and released with every step. The trees and foliage all blended together, and I didn’t understand how the woman could move so sure-footedly. She weaved around trees and over logs as if she knew exactly where she was going even though everything around us looked the same to me. The rain started to come down harder until little rivulets ran down the faceplate of my helmet. I reached up a hand to wipe the water away, but I only smeared it around and added some mud from my glove to the mix.
I stumbled on a thick root and pitched forward. Adrien tried to catch me, but I took us both down. A long ripping noise filled the air as we fell.
The suit.
I held my breath even though I knew that wouldn’t really matter. With my hyperallergies, any skin contact with the air would trigger a lethal attack. I looked down frantically, but I could barely see a thing through my smudged faceplate. “Is it ripped?”
Adrien immediately started searching my suit. An agonizing minute passed before he breathed out and held up my forearm where the outer suit material hung almost completely off now.
“It was just the two top layers that you’d already ripped. The underlayer is still safe. That was too close,” Adrien said, his eyes wide. He reached up and wiped my faceplate clean with the sleeve of his tunic. His hair dripped with water.
“It’s okay,” I said, my heart still thrumming in my chest. “I’m fine. Let’s keep going and get you out of the rain.”
He let out a slow breath and nodded. He interlocked his fingers tight in mine as we started forward again.
After a few more minutes, Jilia announced that we’d arrived.
I looked ahead and frowned. I didn’t see a building. Just more green. “Where?”
Jilia laughed. “Right here.” She reached toward one of the trees, but when she touched it, it rippled and moved like a cloth surface. What had looked like a three-dimensional forest was actually a painted curtain.
“It doesn’t work close up, but we’re deep enough in the forest that it’s camouflaged from any random flyovers. The material’s like the tarp I used on the duo, it covers heat signatures so thermosatellite scans don’t detect us.”
She gestured for us to step in, and I nudged Adrien ahead of me. I was kept dry by my suit, but he was drenched. I followed him inside to a softly lit, small interior room. Rain spattered loudly on the roof and the walls.
Adrien’s wet tunic clung to him. His shoulders seemed wider than when I’d last seen him and his wiry arm muscles more sharply cut. But he looked thinner too, and when he turned I could see just how ripped-up his back was from the chute.
“Your back!” I said. His tunic hung in tatters and blood had dried from a couple of deep gashes below his shoulder blades. Deep bruises were already starting to bloom.
“Oh right, I forgot about it,” he said. He turned around so Jilia could see. She immediately reached out a hand.
I winced when she touched him, placing her hand on the worst of his injuries. Then as I watched, the lacerations wove themselves shut under her touch. I looked back and forth between the now smoothed skin and Jilia’s face, feeling my eyes widen. “You’re a glitcher?”
“Yep,” she said. “First generation, like Adrien’s mom.”
“Can you heal anything?” I asked.
“I can only heal minor wounds, knit tissue and sometimes bones back together, that kind of thing.” She saw my face drop and smiled apologetically. “I can’t deal with anything at the systemic cellular level, like allergies.”
I moved closer. Within a few minutes, the skin of Adrien’s back was completely smooth. Even the bruises were gone. His muscles rippled under his skin as he rotated his shoulders and breathed out a sigh of relief. “Good as new. Thanks, Doc.”
“That’s amazing,” I whispered, still staring.
“Have you had a lot of traffic lately?” Adrien asked.
“Busier than ever,” Jilia said. “A whole safe house got cracked last week, so our beds were full up. Most of them have moved on.”
Adrien must have seen my questioning glance. “The Resistance uses mobile tent compounds like this one for way stations.”
“We try to set them up outside all the major cities for travelers,” Jilia said. “Or so Rez operatives heading into the city on raids have a base station, or if a situation gets too hot for our people living in the city and they have to run.” She looked at Adrien. “But I can’t remember when it’s ever been this bad.”
Adrien’s face darkened. “It’s gotta be because of Underchancellor Bright. She’s got access to Rez prisoners now, and she can force them to tell her anything she wants. Safe ho
use locations, encryption codes, anything.”
Something passed between them, a quiet communication of dread, before Jilia turned to me and smiled. “Come on, let’s get you inside. Tyryn was cooking up something that smelled delicious when I saw the duo beacon and came to meet you.”
“Tyryn’s here?” Adrien asked, his face breaking into a smile.
Jilia nodded. “And his sister Xona. You remember her?”
“She was just a kid the last time I saw her.”
Jilia’s face soured a bit. “She’s not little anymore. Tyryn brought her up here a few weeks ago. She’s been getting into fights with the other Rez kids ever since their parents died.”
“I heard about that.” Adrien’s voice was quiet. “Her mom and mine used to be friends.”
“Anyway, let’s get you cleaned up, and then you can say hi.”
I looked down at my suit. Spattered mud covered my legs, and, in spite of the oxygen constantly circulating, I could smell how sweaty I was. Everything had been happening so fast, I hadn’t stopped to wonder what came next. “So I guess I stay in this suit till we can get to the Foundation where I can change into another?” I asked uncertainly. I looked at the muddy, ripped outer layers.
“Oh no, no, I’ve got a new suit for you,” Jilia assured me quickly. “We shipped some here just in case. It’s much thinner and more flexible. It’s made of polysurtrate, a new tribond blend that won’t tear or even cut easily. And it allows a far better range of motion than the old model. You’ll love it. It’ll fit like a second skin.”
“But how do I get from this suit,” I pointed down at myself, “into another one without being exposed to the air?”
Jilia smiled. She pushed through a tent flap in front of her and gestured at us to follow. “One of the benefits of a portable research facility. This is the bathroom, normal shower and toilet on one side—” she pointed to one curtain partition covering the left half of the room, “—and this is the three-chambered, all-enclosed allergen wash-down station.” She pointed to a long, rectangular container on the other side of the room that was about seven feet tall and four elevator pods wide.