Salvi swallowed hard but turned back to the door. She couldn’t consider that fate; having it controlled by another. She would control her own.
She swiped Erica’s chip over the door, checked the corridor was clear, then moved quickly down the corridor to the guard room. As she neared the doorway, she slowed, then peered around. She saw the room was empty, saw the corridors showing on the screens of security feed. Saw herself. She stepped inside the room, noting which camera to keep an eye on, and quickly looked around for weapons of any kind. She opened drawers frantically until she found one with contents that made her pause.
A clear Perspex container holding five blue syringes.
Fyte.
She nodded to herself as an idea formed. Right now, she needed every helping hand she could get. If she had to Fyte her way out of here, then so be it.
She pulled out the container, but it was locked with a code. She glanced around, saw a metal coffee mug, grabbed it and began smashing the container’s lock. Eventually it popped, she threw the lid aside and picked up one of the syringes and stared at it. Movement on one of the cameras caught her attention. It wasn’t her corridor, but another.
It was Dancer.
Dancer ran along with a taser in his hand; free of his guard.
Salvi looked back to the syringe, pulled off the protective covering, tested the needle, then stabbed it into her thigh and plunged.
Once the syringe was empty, she tossed it aside, then grabbed two more. One for Bronte, one for Kara, placing them in her pockets. She turned back to the corridor and suddenly saw a spare taser attached to the wall behind the door. She pulled it off, switched it on to arm it, checked the battery life, then glanced back to her corridor screen. It remained empty, but she knew it wouldn’t be for long.
Her mind raced. Had Dancer provided her with a distraction? Had Travis assumed she’d run for the main entrance of MasterSlave instead of into the back of house? Did he not expect her to try and free Bronte and Kara? To just free herself instead? Perhaps that was how the ghosts worked, but Salvi had promised Mitch she was going in with Bronte and Kara, and that she would be coming out with them too. So she would.
She swept out into the corridor again and ran for the double doors. She swiped the chip, the doors opened and, seeing it was clear, she moved swiftly to Kara’s room. Salvi peered through the window and saw she was still inside with a nurse by her side. Salvi quickly swiped Erica’s chip again, the doors opened, and she raced at the nurse without a second thought.
Kara looked at her in surprise, but her nurse had no time to react as Salvi raised the taser and fired.
The nurse barely made a sound as her body locked up, and she fell to the floor.
“Jesus Christ!” Kara said. “What the fuck is happening?!”
Salvi swept back to the door, swiped it closed, then moved back to Kara. She released her from her binding, then tossed her the taser. Kara caught it.
“Brentt, what the…?” Kara said eyeing her.
“We don’t have long!” Salvi barked. “Hurry!” she moved to the nurse who was starting to murmur and move again. Salvi grabbed the data slate on the bench and smashed it over her head. She turned back to Kara, who stood with the sheet wrapped around her. Salvi pulled one of the syringes out of her pocket.
“We have to Fyte our way out,” she said moving back to Kara.
“What?” Kara stared at the needle in her hand.
“Do you trust me?”
“Brentt, I–”
“Do you trust me?” she yelled.
“Y-yeah. Yeah, I do.”
“Good,” Salvi stabbed the needle into her butt. Kara winced and looked at her like she was crazy. “Get dressed in that nurse’s uniform,” Salvi said, moving back to the door. “I’m getting Bronte and we’re getting the hell out of here.”
16: RISE ABOVE
Salvi slid quickly along the wall to the window of Bronte’s room. Her heart was racing now, as the Fyte flushed through her system; the heat within soaring and the sweat beginning to build on her forehead. She felt the adrenaline rushing into her bloodstream, felt her confidence rising, felt strong.
Felt invincible.
Felt like utterly destroying this place and everyone in it.
She peered through the window and breathed a sigh of relief to see Bronte still inside. He lay there asleep as his male nurse worked the console beside him, back turned to the corridor. She pulled away from the window, took a deep breath, then swiped Erica’s bloodied chip over the door console. The door opened and she ran at the nurse with speed as he turned around.
“What are y–”
She threw a hard fist in the man’s face and he groaned in pain, stumbling back. She immediately pushed him back against the bench, as she pressed the shard of data pane against his throat.
“There’s cameras everywhere!” he said, voice all nasally and bleeding. “You can’t get out.”
“Watch me!” Salvi hissed, taking the shard and stabbing it into his shoulder. He screamed in pain as Kara appeared at the door, eyes wide with Fyte, aiming her taser at them.
“Shoot him!” Salvi barked to Kara, throwing him to the floor, and shoving the shard back in her pocket. Kara fired at the man, locking his body up, while Salvi moved to Bronte.
“Bronte!” she yelled, unbinding him. “Bronte! Wake up!”
She looked back at Kara, who now stood inside the room, watching the corridor and darting her Fyte-filled eyes to the unconscious man on the floor.
“Bronte!” Salvi said again, slapping his face hard. “Wake up!”
He opened his eyes groggily. She kept slapping him. She didn’t have time to be nice, and it was hard to control herself with the Fyte coursing through her veins.
Bronte eventually raised his hands to protect his face, startled, rolling away and falling off the bed. He hit the floor with a thud, which seemed to raise his alertness, realized he was naked, then looked up at her.
“Salvi?” his brow furrowed as he covered himself; the wig she wore confusing him, as he glanced between her and Kara.
“Get up!” she hissed. “We’re leaving. I know your head hurts, but we need to move!” she said. “Hurry!” She slid over to the unconscious nurse and began removing his clothes and throwing them at Bronte, who didn’t hesitate to put them on. They mostly fit, but he couldn’t button the shirt over, and he had to leave the man’s shoes behind and go barefoot.
Salvi slid back to Bronte again and pulled the third syringe from her pocket.
“What the fuck?” he said, eyeing it.
“We have to Fyte our way out,” she said, heart racing, breath panting, eyes wired and probably looking a little crazy right now. She stabbed it into his thigh, and he grunted, then she grabbed his shirt in her fist and pulled him closer.
“We have to Fyte our way out, Bronte! Fyte! Got it?”
Bronte nodded, and she pulled him upright and they moved to the door again. She noticed Bronte was a little unsteady on his feet, dizzy, and he shook his head as though trying to clear it. She hoped the Fyte would soon clear the grogginess from his surgery.
“Which way?” Kara said, as they reached her.
Bronte ran his hand down over his face but paused when his fingers caught on one of his neural devices. “What the…?”
Salvi pulled his hand away. “Forget it now. We deal with that later. We have to get out of here.”
He stared at her still confused and she pulled her wig off painfully to show him her devices. He stared at them, horrified, and felt his own again.
“Fuck…” he breathed.
She nodded, her face twisting with emotion as her eyes stung once more. “I know… Now come on before they use them against us!”
They peered out into the empty corridor, then Salvi led them back the way she had come. As she did, the double doors ahead opened.
Travis stood there with the two guards.
“I think you’ve gone far enough!” he said, as the guards raise
d their taser weapons.
Kara swiftly moved beside Salvi and raised her taser back at them.
“Drop it!” the guard yelled.
“Aren’t those tasers dangerous with our neural devices?” Salvi said, clenching her jaw.
“Wanna find out?” Travis smiled smugly.
“Do you?” Kara said, turning her eyes to the guards and their neural devices.
“Drop it now!” the guard yelled.
“It’s three tasers against one,” the other guard yelled.
“I’m waiting,” Travis said calmly.
Salvi, chest heaving, contemplated their options but knew they had only one. She placed her hand over Kara’s and lowered her weapon. Kara looked at her, confused; sweating, panting, pupils dilated.
“What are you doing?” she hissed angrily.
Salvi raised her arms in surrender. “Do what they say.”
“Salvi!” Bronte warned.
“They have weapons,” she said quietly, coldly. The look in their eyes told her they got her meaning. The guards had weapons, and they needed weapons.
Kara placed her taser on the ground and they raised their hands in the air.
Travis began to move toward them with a guard either side. “You think we were just going to let you walk out?” he said. “No-one has ever escaped from MasterSlave, and they never will, because…” He tapped his temples, referring to their neural implants. “We control you now.”
“Turn around!” one of the guards yelled at Bronte as he approached. Bronte did so, locking eyes with Salvi once more. She saw his eyes were alert now but also dark, his chest rising and falling with the surging adrenaline of Fyte within his veins. Bronte was bigger than any of the three men approaching them. It gave her hope.
“You too!” the second guard called to Salvi and Kara.
Salvi and Kara turned around too, placing their hands in the air.
“They don’t know we’ve had Fyte,” Salvi whispered.
They stood there in a line, Bronte and Kara either side of Salvi, waiting for the guards to reach them; chests heaving, hearts racing.
“On your knees!” one of the guards yelled. “Hands behind your head!”
She glanced around at the guards, wondering whether they’d had any Fyte too, but she saw no sweat upon their brow, no heaving chest, no wild look in their eyes.
“The guards haven’t,” she whispered, as she placed her hands behind her head. “We take one each.”
The two guards moved for Bronte and Salvi, while Travis stood back aiming a taser at all of them.
“Kara, Travis!” Salvi said, as the guard grabbed for her hands and she threw a wild elbow into his face.
Within seconds there was utter pandemonium in the corridor. Salvi spun around and grabbed her guard, while Bronte threw his into the wall and Kara ran at Travis with speed. Travis fired his taser and Salvi heard Kara groan, but she didn’t have time to see what had happened as her guard fought back, throwing a hard punch in her face. He was strong, but Salvi felt relentless with the Fyte in her system. She landed blow after blow into the man, as flashes of Tynan Williams in Kelto’s Diner went through her mind; pacing back and forth like the bullet wounds he’d received and the blood pouring from him meant nothing. And she understood what that felt like now. The pain was inconsequential to the anger, the Fyte, burning through her veins.
Inconsequential compared to her desperate need to escape.
Her guard stumbled back amid the blows, falling to the ground, and she threw herself on top of him. She heard Bronte still throwing his around and landing heavy Fyte blows, and Kara groaning up ahead as she lay on the corridor. Salvi’s guard threw another punch and she thrust her hand into her pocket, pulled out the shard of data pane again and slammed it into his neck. He tried to yell out in pain, but only a gargle formed. Salvi ripped out the shard again, then pulled back and stumbled to her feet. She looked up to see Travis disappearing through the doors ahead, and Kara getting to her feet, shaking off her tasing and jogging after him, a ball of anger. Just like Tynan Williams would’ve done.
“Bronte!” Salvi called, following Kara.
Bronte stood over his guard and laid one more brutal kick into his side, before jogging after them.
“No!” Kara yelled as the double door closed in front of her. Salvi moved to swipe Erica’s chip over the console, but nothing happened.
She tried again.
Nothing.
“Shit!” Salvi hissed. They’d cut off her access.
“What is it?” Bronte asked, joining them.
“Travis is gone. We’re locked in,” Salvi said, eyes darting around. “We’re trapped.”
“Anyone still got a tracking device?” Kara panted, feeling her nose for her missing piercing. Salvi looked at her and shook her head. Bronte suddenly straightened with a look of concentration on his face. They saw his jaw moving in an odd way, as though he were cleaning his back teeth with his tongue.
“Bronte?” she asked, holding her breath.
“Holy shit…” he said, his voice slurred with his tongue bent back into the corner of his mouth.
“What?” Kara asked.
“I still got it!” Bronte darted his Fyte-filled eyes between them. “The one they attached to my jaw. The fake wisdom tooth. I got it!”
“How did they not find it?” Salvi asked.
“It wasn’t activated,” he said.
“Can you activate it now? Is it working?”
Bronte stuck his pinky finger in the back of his mouth, fishing around.
“Bronte!” Kara said urgently.
“I got it,” he said. “I got it! It’s activated!”
“We need to get outside,” Salvi said. “We need to get your signal out, so Riverton can pick it up.”
“But how?” Kara said, looking around. We’re locked in!”
Salvi felt the deja vu wash over. Memories of being locked inside the silo with Subjugate-52. Only that seemed to pale in comparison to the situation she was in now. MasterSlave was worse. Much, much worse.
Suddenly the doors at the end of the corridor, past Salvi’s room, opened. They all spun around ready to face whoever it was; Kara raising her taser.
It was Dancer.
He was alone.
He held his hand out to stop them. “Relax! I can help you!”
“Why would you help us?” Bronte asked, clenching his fists.
“You need me to get out of here, and if you’re getting out, then you’re fucking taking me with you.”
“You expect us to trust you?” Kara asked, holding her weapon firm.
“I think we can!” Salvi said, holding her hand out to Kara’s taser again. “He created a diversion earlier. He bought me time.”
“Hurry!” Dancer hissed.
“Come on!” Salvi said to her colleagues.
They ran toward him, swooping to collect the guards’ tasers as they did.
The double doors closed behind them as they stepped into a narrower corridor that ran left and right, along what Salvi hoped was the end of the building.
“How do we get out of here?” Salvi asked.
“This way,” Dancer waved for them to follow him, as he jogged off down the left-hand side of the corridor.
“What about the security cameras?” Salvi asked.
“They’re down,” he said, moving toward a single doorway set into the end wall.
“How do you know?” Kara asked him.
“Because I took them down,” he said, pressing himself up against the wall by the sealed door and checking his wristwatch. “As soon as this door unlocks, we got fifteen seconds to get through before the cameras come back on, so move fast. We don’t want them to see us.”
“Then what?” Bronte asked, skin wet with sweat, as he glanced back down the corridor, the neural devices shining silver against his dark skin.
“We get the fuck out of here,” Dancer said as though it were obvious.
“Why haven’t you tried th
is before?” Salvi asked. “Why now?”
“Because it’s taken me this long to figure it all out and set it up. You think they’re going to just grant me access to their systems and let me poke around in there? I had to do it piece by piece in small grabs of time, waiting for my guard to check his phone or talk to another about game scores.”
“But why now?” Salvi asked. “Why risk coming for us?”
“Because I can’t do it alone and everyone here is too scared to do it with me. The power is about to trip out, which will get us through this door, but the generator will kick in and restore it, and the doors this end of the building will lock again. Our final door to the outside will be locked, and it has a twin security measure, two consoles two codes, that have to be entered at the same time. I’m good but I’m not that good, so I need you.”
“What do we do when we hit the outside?” Bronte asked, still checking both sides of the corridor.
“We run like hell,” Dancer said.
“That’s it?” Kara asked. “That’s your plan?”
“Hey, it’s the best I can do. You got a better idea?”
Salvi raised her hand in calm. “We just need to get outside. If we get outside, the cavalry will come.”
Suddenly the building plunged into darkness and they heard the door beside them unlock.
“Hurry!” Dancer said, pulling it open and disappearing inside. Salvi grabbed for the opened door and followed the sound of Dancer’s feet, unsure of where they were headed in the darkness, but soon enough the lights came on again and she heard the door behind them locking. She glanced around seeking proof that Kara and Bronte were inside with them. They were. She breathed a sigh of relief and glanced back around to what appeared to be a stairwell.
Dancer started heading down the steps.
“Wait!” she called “Where are you going?”
“The basement. There’s a sewer that will lead us away from the building out of sight.”
“No,” Salvi said.
“Salvi?” Kara screwed her face up.
“We need to get into the open air as soon as possible.”
“The only other way out is the roof,” Dancer said. “If we go up there, we’ll be trapped. They’ll see us.”
The Sensation Page 28
