Cadence

by Wilson, Dianne J. ;

  A hand on his back. Bree’s voice in his ear.

  “What’s going on?”

  He shivered and tore his gaze away from the fire. As he blinked, the scene switched back to black skies and his people. “It’s all good. Let’s go.” He led the group towards the gleaming gates. As he walked, his view flickered between the natural and spiritual until they blurred into one. He could see the gates ahead, cold metal gleaming, and the flames. DarKounds paced along the perimeter fence just waiting to be let loose.

  His mind screamed, adrenalin pumped through him. How could he keep walking his friends towards this disaster? Yet there was no other way.

  They had to go. They had to face whatever lay waiting for them beyond the burning gates.

  25

  Evazee’s pulse raced. Zulu’s boys didn’t wear boots. She ran through a mental checklist of the OS dwellers. None of them had boots like this either. The feet came closer, sauntering as if they belonged. Unhurried. No fear of discovery. Who was this?

  A slow whirlpool started in her thoughts. It grew, making every scrap of logic spin slowly. Emotions hooked and pulled along too. Swirling down and around. Thinking through a mind of sludge became impossible.

  I know you.

  ~*~

  Kai didn’t dare blink as they walked up to the gates. For the moment, they were just ordinary gates. No flames, no smoke, no screaming souls. Kai’s eyes watered by the time the gate guard strolled over.

  “What is your business here?”

  Ruaan pulled back so that Kai could do the talking.

  “I have a new batch of volunteers for testing.”

  “You walked through the desert?”

  Kai waved over his shoulder. “Our desert buggy ran out of gas. You might want to send someone to fetch it.” The guard held out his hand. “Naviband.”

  Kai coughed to cover the red heat climbing his neck. The Naviband would probably have been reported and blocked. Handing it over could well get them locked up. He unhooked the band and handed it over. He watched the guard’s face waiting for the change. Waiting for him to shout for backup. There would be guns and blood. This was a stupid idea.

  The guard stared at the device, pushing buttons down the side. “I’m sorry, but this isn’t going to work. I should probably call somebody.”

  “It’s a recycled band. Probably the IT guy’s version of dumb joke.” Stupid, stupid idea. “Is there a problem?”

  The guard nodded his head knowingly. “That bunch in IT are beyond lazy. They just didn’t bother to do it right. I’d advise you to get it sorted out immediately. Not all the guards are as understanding as me. I’ve put in the co-ord’s for where you need to go. You can use that spare buggy over there.” He clicked a button and a pedestrian gate built into the main gate popped open.

  Kai took the band back and forced out a conspiratorial snort as he snapped it back onto his wrist. He didn’t trust himself to throw out any further comment, so he waved his friends through the doorway. Together they climbed into the buggy. Kai patted the dash and motioned for Ruaan to drive on.

  They chugged past a number of different sections of parking bays and entrances. Kai tapped the Naviband to make sure it was still tracking. This place was enormous.

  As Ruaan pulled to a stop in the bay that the Naviband led them to, Zap poked his head between the seats. “Seems to me, the IT guys aren’t the only incompetents employed here.” He cricked his neck to the left and right, laced his fingers, and pushed, making all his knuckles pop. “Right. What’s the plan?”

  Bree spoke up from the back seat of the buggy. “The fact that you haven’t already brain-dipped to know the plan, means he probably hasn’t got one.”

  Zap frowned long and hard at Kai. “For some reason, our boy’s head has become a no-go zone to me. I’d love to figure out why.” He poked Kai’s temple with a finger.

  “Stop that.” Kai batted his hand away. “Besides, I do have a plan. Sort of.”

  Bree’s lack of expression said it all. “Sure you do. We believe you.” She shrugged, and Zap grinned at her.

  Bree hung back as the guys climbed out of the buggy.

  The Naviband had guided them right to the back of the building. If a laboratory had a service entrance, Kai imagined that this is what it would look like. The rest of the building was all glass and shiny metal, but this side was a long stretch of solid grey brick and cement. The only break in the wall was a single door, closed over and unguarded.

  Bree slipped out from the back of the van and shut the rear door. It swung closed with a loud crash that echoed and made Bree jump. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

  Kai’s face was a mess of concern. “I don’t know. Maybe you should just wait out here? It won’t make much difference to have you come inside.”

  Bree drew herself up and got so close to Kai he tottered over and had to back step to catch himself. Her fury was tightly contained in her small frame. “You can’t leave me behind again. That won’t happen.” Kai opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Bree shoved her finger in his face. “And don’t tell me it’s dangerous.”

  Kai pinched his face with the effort of not saying what he was thinking.

  Ruaan looped an arm around Bree’s shoulders. “Our Bree deserves to see her dad as much as any of you. Anyway, there’s nothing you can do now. It’s not really any safer for her to sit out here in the parking garage. What’s the plan?”

  Kai clenched his jaw so hard, his cheeks rippled. He stalked back to where Zap was puzzling over how to unlock the door.

  Bree and Ruaan jogged to catch up.

  “I can’t believe he was trying to leave me outside. My only family is right here,” Bree whispered.

  “Don’t hold it against him. He still hasn’t forgiven himself for leaving you behind in the desert.” Ruaan shrugged. “And I think Zap is right. He fancies you.”

  “Oh, that’s rubbish, did you see how he looked at me right now?”

  “Believe me, don’t believe me. I don’t care. It doesn’t change the fact.”

  Kai called out over his shoulder, “I can hear everything you two are saying. I hope you know that.”

  Bree stifled a giggle and Ruaan scratched his head.

  Kai turned away and held up his Navibanded arm as a magician would demonstrate his empty sleeve. He aimed it under a small beam of light, and the lock clicked. The door swung back on its hinges. “That’s how you do it. Brains.”

  Zap shot out a fist for a bump, but Kai pushed past him through the doorway and left Zap hanging. Kai waited inside for them all to get in before pulling the door shut, cutting off the sunlight from outside. The passage was dimly lit by faint fluorescent tubes dotted at intervals. The one over where they stood flickered and popped before winking out.

  A cold shaft of dread slid through Kai. He should have come alone. As much as he’d bragged about having a plan, he wouldn’t tell them how half-baked it was. It was a relief that Zap couldn’t scoop around in his brain and spell it all out for them, as puzzling as that was.

  The passage they were in offered three options: left, right, or straight up the stairs in front of them.

  Kai hunched over the device on his arm. He shut his eyes, breathed deep, turned right, and led them down the passage. They walked in single file, trying to look as if they belonged.

  The first person to pass them was a woman in a white lab coat. She walked with clipped footsteps, absorbed in the tablet in her hand with a deep frown on her face. She grunted as they passed.

  Kai got the feeling she didn’t particularly notice that they were there.

  They came to a break in the wall on the right. A gloomy stairway led down and around. Further down, some of the lights were out, making it impossible to see what they were walking into.

  Kai flinched as he took the first step, but he kept going and they all fell in behind him, taking the stairs in single file.

  The gloom filtered through Kai, laying a dark cloud in his heart a
nd mind. He breathed in the thick odour of chemicals and it choked him.

  Bree’s face pulled tight as it would if she were trying to wear jeans a size too small. She caught Kai looking at her and grimaced, shaking her head. She felt it too, this oppression.

  ~*~

  Evazee sat under the desk with a frozen bottom. Whoever had come into Torn’s office didn’t seem in a hurry to leave. She could tell by the creak of a swivel chair and low rumbling hum of some unfamiliar tune. Her insides were in complete turmoil. She couldn’t keep two words straight, and fear ran rampant, paralyzing her. She didn’t have time to be stuck under the desk, freezing from the cold tiles. This was nonsense.

  Evazee had to know. If she was hiding for nothing, she could have a good laugh at herself and get on with life; drink her water, get back on track. Maybe even save the day. She eased her weight onto her hands and knees, careful not to squish the bottle in her hand, and crawled as quietly as she could out from under the desk to peer around the corner.

  The chair by the window swivelled around, and Evazee sucked air through her teeth. It was Shasta, draped across the seat as if his spine was made of warm wax, his long, silvery hair caught in a leather tie at the nape of his neck and his pale eyes luminous in the gloom. Shasta, who’d run the Affinity training program and messed up so many lives. The same one who’d got under Evazee’s skin and into her head in a way she couldn’t escape.

  ~*~

  Kai’s mind spun. Having Bree here shoved their mission to new levels of risk that made his head ache. He led them down the corridor with a growing sense of dread weighing him down. A staircase led off the passage to the right, and his belly twisted at the thought of going into such a shadowy place, but the Naviband was clear—that was the way to the laboratory.

  As his foot touched the first step down, his sight warped, showing the stairs but overlaying the spiritual realm. The stairway was littered with DarKounds. At the sound of his foot connecting with metal stairs, the creatures’ heads popped up as one, tracking their movements.

  Kai cringed as he stepped between them, thoughts flying. He had no time for their nonsense. The lab was at the bottom of these stairs and nobody would keep him away, but to put the others in danger was not something he wanted to do.

  “Guys, you can wait upstairs. I’ll check this out.” He could tell by their faces that none of them were seeing what he was.

  “Don’t be daft. Just go.” Ruaan waved him on with a flinty look to his face that he didn’t have time to tackle.

  As he picked his way between the hideous animals, his heart shrank in his chest and his palms sweated. The others followed without hesitation. A glass door waited at the bottom of the stairs with the word Laboratory sandblasted into the glass. A printed notice hung below it. Authorized Personnel Only. Keep Out.

  He lined up the Naviband with the scanner, and the door slid back with a quiet whoosh. Strange for a marketing employee to have access to a top-level lab, but Kai didn’t stop to question it. He stepped through the doorway first, peered around.

  Many scientists were dotted around the room at different workstations, peering into microscopes, decanting liquid into test tubes.

  One from the workstations closest to the entrance stared at them as they entered. He set the test tube into its holder and rushed over to them. His shoes tick-ticked on the tiled floor. “You’re not meant to be here. All visitors are to go straight to reception. What is your business here?”

  The others shoved Kai forward as their volunteer spokesperson. He tripped over his own foot and caught himself just before face-planting. “I’ve been working with Doctor S. He asked me to recruit some more test subjects.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “These are them.”

  The scientist didn’t look convinced, but then Dr S. stepped forward from the back of the lab. “Yes, yes. Thank you. I’ll take it from here.” He came over to the group and grabbed Kai’s elbow. “Follow me.”

  By the time they reached his office, sweat rolled down Dr S’s. temples. He waved the five of them inside, checked up and down the passage, and shut the door. “You’ve got some nerve coming back here. I should lock you up right now. I still have the bruise from the last time you pulled that stunt and got away.”

  “Have you stopped using the eye drops?” Kai had to get through to the man.

  “And why would I do that?”

  Bree stepped forward with her hands tucked into her armpits. “Well, maybe it will help you see some of the things that you’ve forgotten about.” She pulled the tie from her hair with her good hand and shook out her curls.

  Dr S’s eyes blinked fast as if someone had flicked the turbo switch. “Bree?”

  “I thought you were dead.” Her face remained wooden.

  “How did you know?” His eyes darted wildly. “You shouldn’t be here.”

  Kai stepped forward, slipped a hand onto Bree’s back. Her whole body was ice cold and trembling. “We’ve come for two things.”

  The doctor passed a shaking hand over his eyes and waved for Kai to continue.

  “Your life is in danger. Unless you change something, I doubt you’ll still be alive in another few weeks.”

  The corners of the man’s mouth pulled in the effort of suppressing a laugh. “And the second thing?”

  “This serum you’re working on is bad news. You might think you’re doing the world a favour, but you need to understand what the serum does.”

  Dr S. scratched his head and held his hand towards Bree. “You lot have complicated things by coming down here. The whole reason we spun the story of my death was to keep you out of all this. You and Elden. I believe in the work I’m doing here, but that doesn’t mean it is without risk. Any new thing comes with challenges and growing pains. I didn’t want either of you caught up in any of it.”

  Bree’s lips pulled into a tight line. She spoke in a small, bitter voice. “You’re a fool for thinking you could protect us by lying. That’s not how it works. You won’t believe Kai that the serum is bad, then believe me. I was stuck in that world, under its influence for months. This happened there too.” She drew back her sleeve and held out her mess of a hand.

  Dr S. blanched at the sight of his daughter’s mauled hand. He covered his mouth. Blood drained from his face. “What happened?

  “DarKounds. Somewhere in the desert surrounding this place.”

  “DarKounds? You must mean our Stalkers? I like the sound of darKounds. More creative than Stalkers.” He frowned at Bree’s hand. “They did that to you? They were never designed to be violent, just vigilant.”

  Bree waved her damaged arm towards him. “Oh, for sure. Vigilant. Who are you trying to kid? You can’t even look at it.”

  Dr S. took her hand and ran his fingers over the puckered scars in her skin. “I don’t know what to say.” He seemed to be struggling to swallow.

  Kai took his gap. “Doctor, I think there’s a whole lot more going on here than what you know about.”

  “Now that I think about it, there’ve been some things that didn’t make sense. But if what you’re saying is true, then it would all fit right in.” He looked around suddenly as if paranoia overwhelmed him. “I’m so sorry. I thought it was for the good.”

  There was a brief knock on the door, and a security man came in without waiting for an invitation. “I believe you need some assistance. Would you like me to escort this lot to the lab for prepping?”

  “I didn’t call for you. I need to interview them and document it all first. You’re dismissed.”

  “They told me you might say that, and that I should insist most strongly.” The man grinned as if he enjoyed the power he was wielding in this moment. He didn’t wait for consent, but moved in on them.

  “Craven! Think about your daughter. She wouldn’t still be here if I hadn’t stepped in. Are you sure you want to cross this line with me?” Dr S. stood quiet with his arms folded. Only the tick in the corner of his eye gave away his heightened emotions.

  “Aw,
Doc. I can’t argue with that. I’m just trying to do my job.” The big man changed at the mention of his little girl.

  The doctor patted him on the back. “But you are still doing your job, just outside. I promise I’ll call you when I need you. Now off you go.” He shut the door behind the big man and paced the room, wiping at the beads of sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand. “I need to think this through. Something’s definitely not right. This is my life’s work, you know? If what you’re saying is true...” He buried his head in his hands.

  Kai stepped in close and whispered, “We need your help. An antidote. Will you do it?”

  “It’s not that simple. This new batch is designed to be irreversible. It—”

  “Are you willing to try?” Kai asked for the world, but for himself too. Even standing there, he could feel his cells changing.

  The doctor glanced at Bree, and pain crossed his face. He shut his eyes, rubbing his forehead as if that would somehow reverse time. “I’ll try.”

  “That’s all we need. We’ll figure out how to distribute it.”

  “I must be crazy.” Dr S. glanced at Bree. “But listen to me. You can’t come back here. There are powerful people here who think nothing of using the guns they’ve been issued. Let me get you guys safely out of here. Give me your Naviband.”

  Dr S. frowned over the buttons, muttering. Another doctor pushed through the swinging doors. “Craven’s looking particularly thunderstormy today. What’s happening in here?”

  Kai looked up at the sound of his voice and stared. Kai had seen him before. In visions and dreams. “Roland?”

  The doctor swung around. “I haven’t been called by that name for a long time. Oh.” He stopped dead at the sight of Kai. “What are these people doing here?”

  Dr S. floundered. His mouth worked wordlessly, and his head swung between Kai and the doctor who’d answered to Roland.

  Kai hadn’t really thought through what would happen if he met his dad face to face here. He should have. Faced with him now, he only wanted to leave. He took the Naviband from Doctor S. “We were just on our way. Come on, guys.”