Kylie inwardly sighed.
Kylie waited for what seemed like an eternity while standing in the open before Marge replied.
She passed through the doorway and down a long hall before she came to a wide window overlooking a lab. She didn’t have time to focus on what was inside as voices came from a corridor to her left.
Marge almost read her mind.
There was some equipment in the hall, and beyond that, a table. Kylie dashed down the hall and squeezed behind a table barely big enough to hide her. As the footsteps rounded the corner and traveled closer, she held her breath and squeezed her eyes tight. Then whoever was approaching stopped and started to backtrack the way they came. Kylie breathed a sigh of relief.
Kylie didn’t respond as she waited for Marge to finish her work. She had two options: either leave now, or break Lana out herself. But Harken had made her, and would put the facility on full alert, and they might not get another chance. If they were experimenting on Lana—doing something that was going to kill her—then Kylie had to get her out. Even if Grayson hadn’t reinforced the belief that she could do it, it was really the only option.
Kylie couldn’t let Lana die.
Plus, the faster she rescued Lana, the faster Kylie got Nadine back. Grayson wouldn’t like it, but she’d have to deal with him somehow.
Exchange Lana for Nadine and cut the general out. A letter of marquee wasn’t that important to Kylie if it meant being without her lover. If they met with Jason, the bounty hunter, maybe they could figure out why Lana was so important. Why everyone seemed hell-bent on obtaining her. Lana wasn’t much older than a college student, so why was she so important?
Could she really let Jason have Lana, just like that? Once Nadine was secure, nothing was stopping her from rescuing Lana and then returning her home.
Kylie went into the lab through the open door. There was a lot of equipment along the walls, and in the center of the room was a single bed where a young woman lay.
The woman’s back was arching and twisting like she was having some sort of spasm. Her long, blonde hair was slick with sweat and spread around her head like a wavy halo on her pillow. Her face strained with exertion, and a sob escaped her throat. The freckles Kylie had seen in the picture were gone, like they had been bleached off, and her blue eyes were wide with fear.
She really was just a kid.
“They’re going to kill me,” she whispered. “Please! Help me.”
Her words moved Kylie. She nodded wordlessly and worked to remove the straps holding Lana’s legs and arms down. She didn’t consider the risks. Lana’s life was in danger. She needed help, and she was a person, wasn’t she? Not just a bargaining chip. Damn, why couldn’t she had just been a damn bargaining chip?
Damn, but Kylie could do that well enough. “Can you walk?” she asked Lana.
Lana shrugged and then nodded her head. “I guess so. Maybe. Did my dad send you?”
“Yes,” Kylie said, mostly to motivate her. “Now, we need to get moving before they find us. We have a lot of ground to cover.” She extended her hand to the girl, but Lana recoiled from her.
“Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!”
“I’m just trying to help.” Kylie tried to keep her temper under control. “If we don’t get moving soon, we’ll be a little bit dead. So, if you please—”
“You can’t touch me!” Lana sobbed and put her hands over her ears like she was trying to block something painful out of her mind. “I’ll hurt you if you touch me.”
“Lana.”
Kylie’s hand froze in midair.
Kylie’s mind swirled with everything that her AI had just said. She tried to get a grasp on it. Is that what everyone was fighting over? Was that what Grayson and the Silstrand Alliance wanted? This advanced tech…was Lana even General Samuel’s daughter?
Lana sobbed into her pillow and her heart-struck grief sealed the deal for Kylie. She wrapped a sheet around her hands so she could safely grasp Lana’s shoulder. “Whatever this is, I’m not going to leave you behind. Stay with me. Can you do that?”
Her tears tapered off and then Lana nodded. “Where will we go?”
“Leave that to me,” Kylie said with gritted teeth. She helped Lana off the bed, and a minute later, they sprinted from the lab together. Kylie went first and Lana followed behind, trying to stifle her sobs. The simple truth was, if Kylie couldn’t get out of this maze and reach the Dauntless in time, there might not be an escape for either of them.
BACKUP
STELLAR DATE: 08.46.8947 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Near the Unyielding Lance, Perseverance
REGION: Scattered Disk, Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
Rogers howled with delight as the Dauntless dove low and away from the GFF cutter that had been pursuing them. Grayson loved to see a man enjoying his work, but this was a bit more extreme than he could tolerate.
Grayson closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Thank the stars for small favors. The rest of the team wasn’t as joyful as he was.
“Whoa!” Rogers said out loud while Winter broadcasted across the system-wide Link.
In a bad way? Grayson struggled to keep his emotions in check. He had watched Lana grow up. He saw how she went from a naïve child to a young woman who wanted nothing more than to break free of being ‘the general’s’ daughter. Disillusioned maybe, but that didn’t mean he wanted to see her hurt. Far from it.
Grayson rose from his seat and rushed off the bridge.
“Wait a second!” Winter chased after him. “Grayson, what do you think you’re doing?”
Already in the weapons locker, Grayson grabbed an environmental suit and began putting it on. “Simple matter is, Winter, if the Dauntless attacks that facility head on, Kylie and Lana might die in the extraction, or they may have surface-to-ai
r defenses that will take this ship out. Tell Rogers to slow down. I’ll drop out, and I’ll do what what’s needed to get them both safely back. Jerrod will send you the coordinates for where to meet up with us.”
As he spoke, Grayson grabbed a duffle and put two spare suits inside, just in case jumping out a window ended up being the best way out of there.
Winter wasn’t having it. “Nothing about what you just said is ‘simple’. What makes you the choice to go? She’s my captain. We’re part of her crew, not you.”
“While that might all be true,” Grayson sighed, “I have a military AI and you don’t. Neither does Rogers. If anyone is going to go in there and get her out with a high chance of success, it’s me.”
Winter stared him down for a long time. “So, help me…if you don’t come through for her, Gray. I will hunt you down myself.”
“And I wouldn’t question it for a minute.” Grayson offered him his hand and Winter looked at it before giving a single, firm shake.
“Get in the airlock. Rogers will come in low and drop you as close as we can, but no guarantees the enemy won’t kill you as soon as you show up on their scan.”
Grayson was willing to take that chance. He grabbed a sidearm and a few grenades, and hurried to the airlock, cycling it open while still pulling on his helmet. Once the pressure equalized, the outer door slid open to the sounds of the low-pressure klaxon.
He shielded his face from the blowing sand, trying to get a clear view of the dark ground that raced blow.
Jerrod paused.
KEEP MOVING
STELLAR DATE: 08.46.8947 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Harken’s Brothel/Research Facility, Perseverance
REGION: Scattered Disk, Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
Kylie knew she couldn’t outsmart them forever. Eventually, her streak of luck would break—which it did just as soon as they got out of the maze of labs and were nearing the area where Harken’s suite was located.
Shots rang out as she peered around a corner, striking the wall near her head. Kylie ducked back, taking a deep, steading breath as she considered how close she had just come to biting it.
She glanced back at Lana to be sure girl was all right—well, all right insofar as gunfire was concerned. Lana hunched under a blanket they had found along the way, pale and shivering, but still standing and looking like there was a bit more fight left in her.
Kylie pulled her weapon out of her boot and leaned around the corner, fired, and pulled back.
Kylie appreciated that.
The enemy returned fire and Kylie bit her lip while she waited for a break so she could return the favor. If she had something other than just a pistol, she could mop the floor with these guys, she was sure of it. But as it was now, with a young woman in her protective custody, good enough would have to do.
She glanced at Lana again to see her finger on her lip, twisting it as she gazed at the wall like something was there. How Kylie was going to get her through this…
“Hang in there,” Kylie said and went to place her hand on Lana’s hand but then remembered what Lana said. She couldn’t be touched. Kylie didn’t know why, but she didn’t want to risk hurting her. “We’ll get you through this.”
Lana just shook her head, with tears in her eyes. “I should’ve…I never should’ve volunteered. This wasn’t supposed to happen.” Her face scrunched up as she neared a full on sob. Kylie wanted to ask her a million questions but now was not the time.
She had to clear a path.
The enemy stopped shooting. Kylie crouched low and ducked out into the hall, shooting one guard in the chest and clipping another in the shoulder. She paused, and no return fire came, so she beckoned Lana to follow. It took some prodding, but the girl got moving again, though she was doubled over, grabbing her stomach like she was going to throw up. Kylie pulled at the edge of her sleeve and led her down the hall.
Shit. Kylie looked left and right down the narrow corridor.
Silently, Kylie thanked her by using a mental image. She kicked the door open and was about to duck inside when the sound of boots thundering through the halls stole her attention. Kylie turned to see three heavily armored soldiers in GFF military colors—not Harken’s regular merc types—round the corner. This was a change; she hadn’t seen any overt GFF presence here at all until now.
The soldiers held CFT shields with pulse-rifles resting in cutouts on the side. Their visors were down, and they closed ranks, overlapping their shields. They looked ready to go to war with someone. Kylie glanced down at her dress and boots—which offered her no protection at all—and felt a suspicion it wasn’t with her.
“Send the girl over to us, and we won’t open fire,” one of the soldiers called out.
“I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen,” Kylie said.
She moved to grab Lana’s elbow and pull her into the room, and Lana screamed, her mouth nearly unhinged from being open so wide. She yanked her arm free, and Kylie was thrown across the corridor where she slammed into the wall.
She hadn’t expected that.
Lana rushed the guards, and they held their fire, glancing uncertainly at one another. As she neared them, Lana raised her hands and silver filaments flowed out from her fingers. They were barely visible, but Kylie could see the strands streak toward the soldiers and dart up under their helmets. The soldiers began to convulse and fell to the ground in seconds. Tendrils touched the soldier’s weapons, and they exploded, shredding the soldiers’ bodies.
The debris was everywhere. No one was putting that mess back together.
Kylie began to form a clearer picture of why everyone wanted to get their hands on Lana. What she had witnessed must have been some sort of nano attack, but to have so many nanobots that they were visible and could just fly through the air and attack targets…
Sounded like a good idea.
Lana collapsed to the floor and Kylie rushed toward her, but then stopped, now understanding the danger in touching the girl. Lana curled into a fetal position and rocked back a
nd forth, her fingers tangled up in her hair. “It hurts…it hurts…” she muttered. “It’s everywhere. It’s everywhere.”
“We have to move,” Kylie said quietly as she crouched next to her, a hand reaching out tentatively. “We need to move you, Lana.”
Lana shook her head. “I can’t. I can’t….”
“Try. If you stay out here, they’re only going to send more men. You’ll have to go through that again. Understand me?”
Lana’s eyes met Kylie’s, and she nodded. With a struggle, Lana sat up and opened her hand, revealing a silver circle on its palm. Silver filaments rose up from the remains of the soldiers and flowed toward her, disappearing into the silver circle, which then faded back to the color of her skin.
Kylie took a deep breath, and she kept her distance as Lana struggled to her feet. There was no way Kylie was going to touch her now.
They ducked into the room they’d been about to enter before the firefight, which was dominated by a long table surrounded by chairs. There were no windows, but a door was present on the rear wall.
Once inside, Kylie closed the door and heard it lock.
“Marge, find out where we are,” she said aloud for Lana’s benefit. “And find a way to get us out of here when the Dauntless arrives.”
Good enough for now.
Lana slid down the wall, settling in a squat. Rocking on her heels, she chewed on her thumbnail. “I can’t hear her anymore.”
“Who?” Kylie asked and crouched beside her.
“My AI, Abby,” Lana said her name like it caused her great pain and squeezed her eyelids shut tight. “She’s not there anymore.”
Close Proximity - An Aeon14 Space Opera Adventure (Perilous Alliance) Page 24
