by M. Van
“Subterran leadership isn’t here right now,” Saera replied.
“Killing me won’t stop this,” Sulos said.
“Won’t stop me from trying.” Saera’s voice sounded strained, and my heads-up noticed the slightest tremor in her hand holding the weapon. Her vitals were rapidly rising from angry to furious, and I didn’t think it would take much for her to pull the trigger.
Considering what Sulos had told us and the way he had dismissed the horrible treatment of the Subterran people stuck in those power plants, I wouldn’t have minded killing the bastard myself, but I doubted it would bring us anything.
“Besides,” Sulos said, “you are forgetting the fact I could kill your”—he paused and then glanced at me—“sister and any other Subterrans in our employment in an instance.” Then he waved a dismissive hand at us and then gestured toward the exit. “I suggest you leave or I’m forced to inform security.”
Within seconds, a word scrolled across my screen. It was a message sent by Kyran. Both he and Tyrel had been silent, and I had wondered if they had experienced technical problems. My mind shocked into overdrive as I read the one-word message: Incomming.
Automatically my eyes shifted to the door at the same time it started to open, and an enforcer came rushing in. Saera noticed the unannounced visitor as well and pointed her weapon in the enforcer’s direction.
The man, who would have appeared massive enough on his own, looked ominous in his exoskeleton suit. His weapon had been drawn before he’d entered the room, and it told me he must have been waiting for us outside the door. Sulos, who must have assumed that his message had been delivered, had signaled him somehow. We were nothing more than a nuisance that had forced him to make a statement to the Subterran government about his interrupted plans, and now he was done with us. A click sounded as the enforcer pulled the trigger on his weapon.
I reached out to grab Saera, positioning my body in front of hers to intercept the energy weapon’s burst of power. Instinctively, Saera responded by making herself small and ducking to the ground. The energy blast hit me in the back, and I hissed as the pain spread along my neck and shoulders.
Not waiting for the pain to fade, I turned to aim my weapon and fired twice, hitting the enforcer in his chest. My weapon was set to standard ammo, and besides making the man stumble back a few steps, it didn’t do much else. As he stumbled, the enforcer reached for his belt. From the numerous times that I had seen that move, I knew he was preparing his weapon for the kind of firepower my suit couldn’t save me from.
Still sitting in his chair, Sulos cursed. He knew as well as I did that an explosive round from the enforcer’s special brand of ammunition would be enough to kill him too. Perhaps even hoped to beat the enforcer to it when he said, “Extermination order, disable E95—” The energy blast that struck him in the middle of his forehead stopped him from finishing his sentence.
For a moment silence fell over us, and we all froze. Even the enforcer faltered and lowered his weapon. Still crunched at my side, Saera’s arm was stretched out, weapon in hand, and pointing at Sulos. She just stared at his body with vacant eyes as if the blood trailing down his forehead and nose was the most interesting thing she had ever seen.
Then everything slammed back into fast-forward motion. An alarm started to blare, probably attracting every enforcer and security officer to the top floor of this building. Behind me, the enforcer already in the room must have received orders on his screen, because he raised his weapon. Remembering him changing the ammo, I pulled Saera up and forced her in the direction of the desk. It wouldn’t serve much as cover, but it was close to the hidden door that Sulos had used coming in and probably our only way out.
Halfway across the room, I glanced over my shoulder and realized we would never make it to the door. Within thousandths of a second, my screen informed me of the pull on the trigger and the estimated time of firing. It also informed me of another enforcer entering the room, but that wouldn’t matter if I didn’t time this correctly.
Focusing on the screen, I kept moving. Fortunately, Saera had composed herself and was also moving now. Digits rapidly counted down, and I dropped to the ground, taking Saera along with me. The enforcer’s weapon fired in the same instance.
It only took a second to realize I had miscalculated. Pain ripped through me as if a hot knife sliced into my skin, but feeling the pain also meant I was still alive. A direct hit would have ended my life in an instant, and so the primary detonation was still to come. Unable to stifle a scream, I landed on top of Saera, who hit the ground hard, and I used my arms to protect her head.
The explosion that followed drowned out the alarm as I felt the heat of residual flames burn my hands and singe my hair. I clamped my teeth together to keep myself from screaming in agony.
Around us emergency fire extinguishers activated, forcing a white substance into the room to kill the flames, but it also made it harder to breathe. Seconds later the ventilation system kicked in, and the white substance along with the lingering black smoke from the explosion was sucked from of the room.
I wanted to turn and point my weapon at the enforcer, who was surely waiting to finish us off, but I couldn’t move. Instead, Saera wrestled her arm free and aimed her weapon at our assailant. She kept firing, but the low voltage rounds that her weapon used wouldn’t make a dent in an enforcer suit. I was barely able to keep my eyes open, but I caught Saera’s, even though she wouldn’t be able to see mine with the heads-up still strapped to my head. It wasn’t hard to read the fear in those eyes. Then there was a thud behind us, and her head shifted to face the enforcer while her body relaxed.
“Hey, sis…sss,” a voice that sounded strangely familiar said. “How do you say sis plural?” The question wasn’t met with an answer. Instead, I heard a smack followed by another, but this time with a disgruntled “Hey!”
“Focus, Riffy,” another voice said. This one sounded female. Raising my head turned out to be more painful than I’d thought.
“Easy,” Saera said as she maneuvered from under me. The light hurt my eyes as someone removed the heads-up. Squinting, I gazed up into blue eyes and an infectious smile.
“Hey, beautiful.” The voice triggered something other than just recognition, and a tingle ran through my body, giving me goose bumps on the parts of my skin that hadn’t been scorched.
Trying to get the room and the people in it into focus, I blinked. A dead enforcer lay at three pairs of feet with what I thought to be a knife sticking from the back of his neck. As I blinked again, it became harder to keep my eyes open. The thought of the dead man’s blood staining this nice carpet lingered in my head before it all faded to black.
Chapter twenty-one
Maece
I opened my eyes to fingers snapping in front of them. The repetitive sound droned inside my head and didn’t help with the headache festering there. A voice joined in with the snapping.
“That’s it. Focus on me.”
Eyes blinking, I tried to do just that, but focus wouldn’t come. Agitation from the constant finger snapping did come, and I lashed out. My fist hit something harder than expected, and it was followed by a groan.
“Ouch,” that same voice asking me to focus said, but this time it came with an elongated whining.
“There you are,” Saera said, and I assumed it was her hand holding mine. I blinked a couple of times and then found her. The presence of three others shocked me into an upright position. I hissed as a sharp pain ran up my arm, into my shoulder, and down my back. Ignoring it, I pressed against the wall as I tried to gain a defensive position. Saera gripped me by the arm that wasn’t hurting and spoke in a soothing voice.
“It’s okay. You’re safe for now,” she said.
“Whatever that means,” the voice from before said. Ignoring him, I glanced around the narrow hallway, and after determining we were alone, I turned to the faces hovering around me.
Those blue eyes from before were sitting at my left side
, and they came with a cheeky grin on a rugged-looking face. It occurred to me that he was quite handsome despite the shaggy, sand-colored hair and the stubble on his jaw. This strange, familiar tingle ran through me again. His smile widened as our eyes met, and before I could drown myself in them, I glanced away, facing the others. A kind face with a set of gray eyes and chubby cheeks greeted me next. They stared at me while the young man’s mouth hung open in a half-smile.
At my right I found Saera sitting as she watched me with an expectancy I couldn’t place. Close at her side sat a young woman who seemed to have barely left childhood, but her eyes held something that made her appear much older.
“Who are you?” I asked. My throat felt raw, and I cleared it. Around me, disappointment became evident as eyes shifted to the ground. I gauged Saera who had a similar disappointing gaze.
“They’re…” she said hesitantly, “your past.” I instantly knew what that meant, and I felt a hint of annoyance stir inside me. Saera wasn’t going to explain.
“We’re your family,” a bright voice coming from Chubby Cheeks exclaimed. Two hands rose simultaneously, and from his left and right side, Chubby Cheeks was smacked in the head. The girl huffed, and the guy sitting next to me said, “What did I tell you about being focused?”
“How else is she going to know if we don’t tell who we are,” Chubby Cheeks said, swatting away the hands. He acted annoyed at his companion’s antics, but they seemed amiable enough.
“I guess names won’t hurt,” Saera said, pointing out Reece, Riffy, and Kelle. I nodded as Saera introduced us and then stuck a hand up to wave hi. A wide smile created a dimple in Riffy’s chubby cheeks, and his eyes brightened as I acknowledged him. The young woman named Kelle seemed a bit more reserved, and I couldn’t read the meaning behind her intense gaze.
The pain that rushed up my arm wasn’t nearly as bad as the pain in my head when Saera had introduced herself, but I couldn’t contain a hiss.
“Here, let me,” Reece said. He gestured at Riffy, who fiddled inside a bag before he gave him something that looked like a gun with a giant needle sticking out. I flinched, inching back, but Saera held me in place.
“I’ve already given you one of these. They help with the pain and healing,” Riffy said. “I promise it won’t hurt.” As if reconsidering his words, Riffy shot Reece a look. “At least if lover boy here doesn’t screw it up.”
Reece lifted his hand as if he were trying to smack Riffy in the head again, but the young man with the chubby cheeks raised his chin defiantly. Reece scrunched up his face at Riffy and then held up the device. He wiggled it playfully while he raised an eyebrow as if that would make me more willing. I glanced at Saera who gave me an encouraging nod and then turned back to Reece.
“If you hurt me, I’ll punch you,” I said, only half meaning the words. Reece grinned.
“I believe you,” he said, pointing a finger below his eye where a bruise had started to form. “You did that already.” My eyes narrowed in on the bruise, realizing his face had been what my hand had hit when I startled awake. Before I knew it, I felt a blush creep up my cheeks and the need to apologize as he said, “Now, look into my pretty eyes.” It became apparent he had to fight to keep a grin off his face.
“Why would I wanna do that?” I replied.
“Because, I’m afraid you’ll hit me again after, and drowning in my gaze will distract you enough so you won’t feel the shot,” he said and then leaned close to my ear. “I know you want it too.” That blush I had felt creeping up before returned with a vengeance. That brought a wide grin to his face, and I turned away from him only to stare into the faces of the others, who were all looking at me sheepishly. It gave me the feeling that they all knew a secret that I wasn’t allowed to know.
Without me noticing, Reece had slipped the needle in just above my collarbone and had already pulled it out. He grinned, raising a hand to protect his face as if I was going to hit him. My composure had returned enough that I managed to grant him a faint smile, but I figured we didn’t have time for antics.
“What did I miss?” I asked.
Saera started to explain how we had come to hide inside Sulos’s secret escape route, while I felt the drug Reece had given me take effect. The burning sensation that ran up my arm and down my shoulder all but disappeared. My head started to feel as if it was cradled on a soft cushion. It felt kind of nice. Without the headache, it was a lot easier to take in the ramble of words thrown back and forth inside this tiny hallway.
The four of them seemed so in tune, as if they had known each other forever. In turns, one of them would shoot me a glance, give me a smile or a grin, and then turn back to the conversation. It was quite a show to watch.
Even though the conversation was intended for my benefit, I had trouble holding my attention. While the effects of the drug started to fade, my strategic mind started to take over. Why the hell were we still in this hallway? Lights in a soft tone lined a tiled path cradled by two walls and stopped at a door to my left. To my right, the hallway seemed to be a dead end.
“Why are we still sitting here?” I asked, returning my gaze to Saera. It was Reece on my other side who reacted. His mouth fell open, and as if appalled, he covered it with a hand.
“You haven’t been paying attention,” he said and gasped. “It’s as if you don’t even care about what we have to say anymore.”
I frowned at his reaction and then turned to the others with raised eyebrows.
“Is he always like this?” I asked. The two women’s faces stayed placid, but Riffy nodded his head vigorously. His eyes held an odd sense of pride in them.
“Reece, you might want to give her some time to acclimatize to your charming personality,” Saera said before she started on her tale again. To her credit, the recap didn’t sound as if she were repeating herself.
It turned out Sulos hadn’t just created this hallway to sneak up on uninvited visitors; he had also kept it a secret from probably everyone. Kyran hadn’t even been able to find it inside the system and had only learned of it because of the scan I had made with my heads-up.
That was why the others were taking their time. It wouldn’t be likely for us to be found in here with Sulos dead, and it seemed I had needed the time recover. The blast had barely skimmed my back, but the integrity of the suit had been diminished by the previous weapons fire. It had still protected me but hadn’t been able to stop the liquid flames from burning my flesh.
Fortunately, in this day and age, if something didn’t kill you in an instant, then there would probably be some substance to remedy physical complaints or near-mortal injury. So they had stuck me with a needle and waited for me to wake up.
In the time that had passed, Kyran had alerted them that pretty much the entire enforcer team had descended on the three ArtRep buildings.
“So, now what?” I asked as I flexed my shoulder and sat up straighter.
“That is the million-dollar question,” Reece said.
“What’s a dollar?” Riffy asked.
“That, my friend, is one of the mysteries of life,” Reece added, giving Riffy a friendly pat on the back.
“Could you just be serious for once,” Saera said, raising her voice.
“Nope,” Reece said, sounding smug.
“Why then don’t you just shove—” Saera started to say, but cut herself of. Her eyes glanced down, and as I followed her gaze, I noticed Kelle had placed a hand on her arm. They shared a look, and I narrowed my eyes, unsure of what to make of it.
“Why don’t we just leave?” Riffy asked, “I mean, didn’t Kyran say this hallway would gain us access to a secret elevator or something so we could get out?” My eyes shot to him in surprise. No one had seemed to be bothered to tell me about that.
“No,” Saera said. “I mean yes, but we have to do something. We can’t just leave with ArtRep still having a firm hold on the people they have recruited to be enforcers, and we can’t just let them continue to enslave our people in the
plants. We need to be the ones to stop them.”
“Why?” Riffy asked. I couldn’t help the sympathetic look I gave him. His expression reminded me of a confused little kid. A confused little kid who looked a lot like Riffy but younger. I forced the memory from my mind and returned my attention to Saera. She gave me a knowing look, and I had the feeling I knew what she was going to say.
“We can’t trust our own government to do the right thing.”
“I say we blow the place up,” Reece said.
“Wait, what?” Riffy asked.
“What good would do that for us?” I asked.
“Well, for one it would make me feel better,” Reece said as he counted the fingers on his hand. He paused at the second finger.
“And two?” Saera asked.
Reece stuck out his lower lip and shrugged.
“Fun.”
Saera shook her head, but her next words told me she was entertaining the idea.
“These buildings hold their main production lines for making enforcers.”
To me, that seemed like a good enough reason to blow the place up. I was lucky enough to have most of my enforcer memories wiped from my mind, but the images of that young boy back in that alley before and after I had pulled the trigger still haunted me. ArtRep had made us do things that in a normal life we wouldn’t even have considered dreaming about. It was the stuff of nightmares, and I wouldn’t want to submit that to anyone, but an added thought crossed my mind.
“What about the people inside the buildings?” I said. The words had come out softer than I’d intended them to, but it caught the others’ attentions.
“We could create a distraction or force them out,” Reece said.
“That still doesn’t answer Maecy’s question,” Saera said. I looked at her, not sure which question she meant. “What good would it do us?”
A long silence settled around us. Riffy scratched his head while Reece stretched his legs. I blew out a breath as a reply came from an unexpected mouth.
