The Assumption Code

by Melodee Elliott

  The kids looked and listened as one of their own mourned his loss.

  “Come,” she said. She touched the boy’s shoulder to make her point. He was to not linger.

  Zarnel ran to another corridor and led them single file again as they navigated through another room. She shot the lock from the door. She and her army filed into the stairwell and climbed, quickly and calmly. Too calm for her comfort. She heard a door open two flights above. Then, she heard a whir of energy.

  “Get down!” she yelled as an explosive device bounced down the stairs. It detonated and blew them down the steps. She lay among them, dazed, some unconscious, and some dead.

  She crawled up the stairs one step at a time, putting her weight onto the next higher step. She heard another door open above her. She gathered her wits and charged ahead, catching sight of the man about to set the charge. She shot him. He tumbled down the stairs beside her. She picked up the explosive device and deactivated it. Her hands trembling even after the device went silent.

  She returned to the group. Many of them were too incoherent to continue. She fell against the wall as shock worked itself from her body. She breathed out the last of it.

  “Come,” she said to those who could do so.

  They climbed the steps with heavy feet, one after the other. Over time the rhythm of the steps and gripping the rail made her dizzy. She stopped to catch her breath.

  “It’s okay,” one young woman said.

  Zarnel chuckled. She collected herself and forged ahead, surmising that DanuVitro’s men would need to keep pace with them at another stairwell and meet at an even higher level. She had not seen any of them in ten flights. They had another one hundred yet to go, and she knew they would be ambushed at some point.

  They made their way, taking the steps two by two at times, for as long as they could. Some of the kids left behind to recover from the blast did so and caught up with the group.

  Zarnel strained to hear beyond the outer wall. A hover car whirled close by with its engines straining. An occasional crash midflight sounded off in the distance. Higher than where they were from the sound of it. The Ward was trying to claim the upper floors.

  As she and her army climbed higher, the sounds of hover car engines darted in every direction. A screeching noise approached them through the outer stone facade. The building rocked, sending some of them toppling down the steps.

  * * *

  The door unlatched from the outside. Margi lifted her head to see a guard quickly close in. Another followed. They lifted her from the floor without saying a word.

  “Where are you taking me?” she exclaimed.

  As she was forced from the room, she looked back to see Tolman sitting with one hand pressed against the energy barrier. He could do nothing.

  She didn’t want to go to Meno. She didn’t want to leave Tolman—or be Tolman.

  They led her down the corridor. She caught sight of the scene beyond the window walls. Hover cars swarmed like bees. Shots were fired in every direction to and from every vehicle. One car spiraled top over end and hurtled to the window, crashing through.

  They were knocked off their feet. One guard had let her go as he fell. She kicked high on her way down and struck the other in the chin, causing him to let loose his grip. She took off running down the corridor. The guards were hot on her trail as she barreled around a corner and ran full speed into another of Stavon’s men, sending her airborne and crashing to the wall. Her body recoiled as it hit, causing her to slam against the floor.

  One guard rushed toward her, caught her leg, and pulled her to him. As she slid, she reached for a pistol that had been flung in the fall. She aimed and shot the guard. Another tried to fling his body onto hers. She shot him in midair.

  “I will shoot you,” a voice called out from behind her.

  She turned her head back to meet the hollow end of a pistol.

  Margi looked past the gun and into the eyes of the man holding it. Such words wouldn’t need to be spoken if they were true. They hadn’t shot at her in the hover car. No one would dare do so now.

  “And deny Stavon his revenge?” she warned.

  The man wavered.

  Within that same instant, she shot.

  The man fell backward, lifeless as the others around her. She gathered the guns and set out to retrace her steps.

  She came upon the hover car that now rested in the hall, its driver dead.

  Laser shots came from outside, indiscriminately hitting the wall on either side of her. She climbed over the wreckage and bolted.

  She ran back through the halls and burst into the room where Tolman was confined. She rushed to the barrier and met him there.

  “I found you,” she said as relief washed over her. “Stand back.” She pointed her gun at the shield. He went to the opposite end of the cell.

  She shot and the energy barrier absorbed the laser beams radiating across the face of it.

  She aimed again and fired repeatedly with the same result.

  She faced the console and shot. Electricity arced and spat back toward her. The barrier remained unaffected.

  “That should have worked. What happened?”

  “It’s been overridden somewhere else,” he said.

  “What can I do?”

  Tolman looked around. “There’s only one way out of this cell and that’s through there to Meno.” He turned his attention to the door behind him, then to her.

  “I’m going to find a way,” she said and put her hand upon the barrier in one last shared experience. He placed his hand opposite hers. His movements were slow as he braced his other hand upon his ribs.

  She thought she could feel his warmth coming through the waves. His swollen eyelid forced open for a labored moment. She made herself part from him and ran from the room.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Stavon thrust open the doors leading into the warehouse. He walked at a brisk pace, shadowed by the tanks of clones that scaled the walls.

  Through the window, off in a side room, workers were bulldozing participant bodies into the burners. He stopped only momentarily to order a warehouseman inside to gather the additional uniforms for burning.

  He continued on down a narrow hallway and into an interior room. There, Loz waited.

  “You need to fix this,” Stavon ordered.

  “Holan hasn’t worked on the project since he started his research on Earth,” Loz replied. “The Path’s harmonics must align to a new host body. The existing body does not allow the voltage for teleportation. The terminals are too close. This has always been our problem.”

  Stavon leaned over and braced his fists on the table. “I need it now.”

  “He was able to teleport vegetation to Meno. He failed with a participant subject,” Loz replied. “His research was very close though.”

  “Show me.”

  He led Stavon farther down the hallway. As a technician rushed by, Stavon held his arm in front of the man, bringing him to a stop. “Get a participant to Lab T5.”

  The sound of a hover car crashing into the side of the structure broke the man’s concentration. He switched his attention to the rattling light overhead, then back to Stavon. “Yes, sir.”

  The man walked away.

  “Now!” Stavon shouted.

  The man hurried off.

  They entered the lab and then gathered in an inner room. A slab was positioned at its center.

  Loz switched on a dashboard and calibrated the instruments. Lights flickered and an energy shield encapsulating the intimate space enlarged to incorporate a comfortable working area.

  Stavon walked through the opening in the barrier and began inspecting the chamber. As he was finishing, the technician and two guards entered with a participant. The man thrashed against his captors as they brought him to the slab.

  Stavon noted the man’s number inked onto his wristband and entered the code back at the console. The man’s data displayed.

  Stavon and Loz read the profile.<
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  “The Ward,” Stavon said. “Now, that’s a turn of events. Wouldn’t you say?”

  The man glared.

  Another crash rattled the walls from outside.

  “Strap him in,” Stavon ordered.

  The men hoisted the participant onto the slab as he shouted and struggled to free himself. Energy bands wrapped his limbs and drew inward.

  Stavon approached him.

  The man’s eyes glared at him as if channeling all of the fury that his body would otherwise have used to pound Stavon into the ground.

  “It’s best you not move. You’ve got one chance to go to Meno in one piece with your Path intact,” Stavon offered.

  The man’s eyes narrowed in confusion and in his last glint of hope.

  “You’ll be taking a Great Adventure as yourself. Imagine that. Do anything you want. You’re still you. I have a vacation home there in the mountains of Yana. You’re going to help me get there intact.” He stepped away. “But first we need to see if you’ll make it there alive.”

  Another crash hit the nearby wall. The man stared at Stavon and did not flinch.

  “We’re ready,” Loz said and turned off the lights.

  A web of glowing rays arced over the man’s body and wrapped around him as they cycled through the visible color wavelengths. They increased in numbers until a shroud formed and suspended him off the slab, dissolving the restraints.

  Loz dialed up the waves until the shroud vibrated. A note in a low key sang through the air. The shape of the man turned white.

  A gap at the man’s torso widened, large enough to see his skin, while the rest of the shroud brightened. A flash of light spun off into the room as the chords unraveled from his form. Then all was calm.

  Loz turned off the machine, and he and Stavon approached the slab where the man had been. What remained were part of his rib cage and what appeared to be a spleen.

  “Get me another participant,” Stavon ordered.

  Loz summoned another one. As he did, a guard approached Stavon.

  “Sir.”

  “What is it?” Stavon replied, only glancing at him out of the corner of his eye and returning his attention to the body parts before him.

  “Margi has escaped.”

  “Escaped?” He looked over his shoulder at the man.

  “She was being relocated when she gained control. The guards are dead.”

  “Find her.” The words came from deep within his chest. “And secure Tolman,” he added.

  The man left for his mission.

  * * *

  Zarnel and her army came upon a wreckage of furniture that had been thrown down the stairwell. They formed a line and removed the items one by one while trying not to make what was left tumble down the stairs, taking everyone with it. The items were stacked at least one entire floor level deep—an indicator that the floors above it were important.

  Once they finished clearing a way through, she signaled for them all to quiet. She approached the door to the floor and opened it wide enough to get a view. She saw no one and continued through the doorway.

  The hall opened into a wider corridor with a stiff breeze coursing through. She followed along the perimeter her army in tow. She waited for the remainder of them to come through the doorway. When the last person closed it behind, she realized after counting heads that a mere fifteen had made it this far. She pretended to not give weight to the loss and continued onward.

  Around a corner were three guards sprawled across the floor. She examined them to ensure they were dead. She took note of the fact there were no weapons. If The Ward had overtaken them, they would still be on the level. Yet the only noise she heard was the roar of the engines from the hover cars outside.

  She proceeded and spied one vehicle crumbled in a heap, straddling the width of the corridor, having flown through the window. They stepped over the mangled parts.

  Zarnel caught a glimpse of the driver, a patch of his skull showing, his scalp having been sheared off in the crash. The others followed her lead and kept moving. One boy flung himself backward at the sight of the body, causing the others to tumble and with them send car parts in a clanking rattle to the floor.

  She turned back. They froze and listened for anyone heading their way. She gave a warning look and signaled for them to proceed, offering them her hand as they cleared the last step.

  The hallway was lined with offices on either side. She opened the door of each as they came across them, alternating sides of the hall.

  She turned a corner and came across a larger, metal door. She opened it. No one was inside though she thought she heard something there at the moment she had opened the door. She found only a cell with what would be a dividing barrier. The tousled sheets on the bed indicated that someone was held there recently. The console had been blasted through. The sharp smell of burned wiring told her this was recent. She closed the door and continued.

  * * *

  Margi felt the floor vibrate as she neared the double doors. She pressed a hand against each panel and found it barred. Shooting her way through wouldn’t help.

  She found another door at a nearby wall. It was unlocked. She opened it to a darkened room. Boxes and cabinets littered the space. A large vent loomed high on the wall. She needed a bridge between the offices and the operations area, and the vent looked to be large enough to work as a passageway.

  She pushed a stack of boxes to a cabinet, climbed atop, and lay beside the vent to listen. Someone yelled in the distance. Machinery hummed closer to her, yet was still far away. A muffled cough escaped her as a faint fume of something acrid caught in her throat.

  Her fingers felt along the edges. There on the far side was a hinge that fell flush with the rim. She lifted it to tilt the grate open and angled her body through.

  She slid on her elbows through the duct, thankful she wasn’t claustrophobic. An occasional thumping of her elbow on the surface echoed. She placed her hands palm down and used them like suction cups to pull her through. The light from behind her grew dim as she turned a corner. She came to a vent and peered through. No one. A three-way intersection neared. She stopped to get her bearings. Tolman’s holding cell would be to the right.

  As she started to make her way there, a woman’s scream cut through her as sound pierced the small canals of the ductwork like a megaphone. A man yelled and then silence. Her instinct was to retrace her direction and head to the woman. For her, it would be too late. But the man’s voice, she thought, indicated that more people were in that direction and not of their free will. The Ward, she realized. Stavon’s men might take Tolman there as well. But had they already? Tolman had been quarantined for his unique service as her very own participant and so would not be held with the common prisoners.

  She dragged herself the other way toward Tolman until she came across a vent. She peeked into the room. Two men sat at a table, eating. She continued slowly, carefully placing her hands ahead of her and pulling her body to them with the push of her knees.

  She continued this monotonous motion until she came to what looked like a hallway, utilitarian by its looks. She eyed it through slats in a grate. An industrial-sized clothes hamper had been pushed to one side. It was empty of uniforms. Her body reflexively recoiled at seeing it.

  She went on and came to a small alcove. At the far end was another vent. She made her way to it and peered through as far as she could, pressing her head against it. A small gap opened. She slipped her pinky in the opening to leverage against the hinge and lifted the grate.

  With her head poked into the alcove, she listened. Only the far off rhythmic humming could be heard, coming from the same direction as the woman’s scream.

  Margi edged out of the duct and crawled her hands down the wall as she slid her body lower, ending with a handstand. She angled her foot from behind the vent to gently close it. Then, she tumbled to the floor and rolled.

  She gripped one of the pistols and made her way down the back hallway until she came ac
ross a door. The latch was unlocked. She opened the door and peered inside. Empty. Yet as she took a closer look, she saw the shattered console and realized that this was the room Tolman was supposed to be in. The energy barrier had disappeared. His bed with tousled sheets sat in the corner.

  The tightening grip of fear overcame her, making her feel as if each breath was her last. She needed to find him. While she was weighing her thoughts, she heard someone, potentially more than one, coming down the main hall and saw the latch turn. She darted out the back door and closed it.

  She looked down both ways of the back hall and decided to go in the direction of the woman’s scream. She consciously stilled her shaking hands that gripped the pistol until her knuckles turned white. She paced at a half walk half run until she heard the two men talking in the break room. They were the ones that she had crawled by earlier. She rushed by the doorway as silently as possible and waited for one of them to emerge. Once she was satisfied they wouldn’t come out, she lowered the gun and continued. She did not know if she had spanned the length of DanuVitro. It felt like it and was as impenetrable as was Stavon’s mind that was the structure housing his horrors. Yet Tolman was there somewhere.

  She sidled through another opening and hid behind the nearest object she could find. Ahead of her was a sight she could barely fathom. Bodies lay in vats secured to the walls, each drifting around in the cloudy concoction that swirled around it. One arm bent at the elbow and appeared to point its hand at her. She was too scared to move. A moment later, her fear succumbed to braver senses mandated by the circumstances, and she looked around the broader room. So many, she thought. She lost count at twenty and turned away.

  She quietly hid behind one wall and darted toward the next as she made her way across the room. The laboratory had been left alone, perhaps abandoned by its keepers.

  She saw the door leading to the next hallway and angled it enough to peek inside the space. People were shielded behind an energy barrier. Some of them she recognized from The Ward. Another of Stavon’s guards sat watching over them. He appeared to be content in his task. No one else meandered in the space. He was alone from what she could see.