by M. Van
Riffy nudged my arm, pulling me from my thoughts, and I turned to him. I nodded. “Thanks, Riff,” I said as I took the device from him. His eyes lit up, and he almost beamed with excitement. He shifted his feet, his boots squeaking on the tiles. Seeming nervous, he glanced to his left where Reece hugged Saera. They said their good-lucks and be-safes before Reece trotted our way.
As Saera embraced Kelle, I understood Riffy’s hesitation, but that didn’t mean that I knew what to do. I shifted as uncomfortably as he did. He watched me with big eyes, and his face scrunched up as if deep in thought. The way he stood there, a flash of his young self penetrated my mind. I decided to go with it and pulled him into a quick hug.
“I’ll see you soon, Riff,” I said and released him. His eyes grew even bigger along with his smile.
Reece reached us and patted Riffy on the shoulder.
“Hey, buddy,” he said, “why don’t you go call up the magnetic lift for us.”
Riffy nodded and stomped down the hall with a purpose. Reece stared at me with his head cocked to a side and a lopsided grin.
“What?” I asked.
“You just made him and me happy people,” Reece said. Narrowing my eyes, I watched him with suspicion, wondering what weirdness would exit his mouth next.
“You are the only one that has ever called him Riff,” he said. The twinkle in his eye lacked any sign of mischief, but only conveyed joy. Without any warning, his arms wrapped around me, and he pulled me into a hug.
“Be safe,” he whispered near my ear. Heat spilled over into my body, where his cheek caressed mine. My skin started to tingle from where it spread down my neckline. Had I been wearing my heads-up, I probably would have been tempted to analyze the strange sensation, but at that point, I was glad I was just able to experience it.
“You too,” I said as he released me from his grip. Flashing one of his by now famous grins, he trotted off to join Riffy at the elevator.
I turned and slowly made my way to Saera, who was still holding Kelle in a tight hug. I stopped as that hug turned into a passionate kiss and lingered for what seemed like an eternity with me having no idea where to turn my eyes in this narrow space.
“Breathe,” Reece shouted from the end of the hall.
Both women pulled back and smiled before I heard Saera’s whisper, “Be safe.”
A reluctant Kelle nodded, and releasing Saera’s hand, she walked over to me. Her dark eyes were hard as steel as she sought my gaze. She stopped in front of me, and our eyes locked. Amazed at the intensity in those eyes, I had trouble holding her stare. After a long moment, those same eyes softened as if something had shifted, and she placed a hand on my upper arm.
“Keep each other safe, okay,” she said in a soft voice that barely reached a whisper. I dipped my head in understanding. With that, she released my arm and headed for the others.
Saera stood biting her lower lip when I looked up.
“That’s my girl,” she said as I stepped closer.
“I’ve noticed,” I replied, glancing over my shoulder. We walked to the door that would lead back into Sulos’s office, and all the while Saera kept looking at me expectantly.
“What?” I asked.
She bit her lip again and said, “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Well, what do you think?” she asked.
I glared at her, not sure how to interpret this, unless…
“You two weren’t together before I left,” I said. She shook her head like a little kid.
“And because it’s a new thing, we’re allowed to talk about it.”
“Well, yeah,” she replied.
“Well, since there is no way for me to know that, you might want to say that next time,” I said.
Saera pulled a hand through her messy blond hair and scrunched up her face as if she hadn’t thought of that.
“Sorry,” she said and paused. “Well?”
I raised my shoulders, chancing another glance at Kelle.
“She seems young,” I said.
Saera playfully shoved me in the shoulder. “She’s turning twenty-one next month.”
Shrugging again I said, “Maybe if I knew your age that would mean something.”
Sadness crept into Saera’s eyes. It wasn’t as painful as I had seen it before, but it still made my heart sink.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “it’s just…I wanted to share this with you for over a year, you know and I…”
“I get it,” I said, stopping her struggle to finish her sentence. “It’s confusing, and to answer your question, I’ve met her about what five minutes ago, and she doesn’t say a whole lot.”
Saera smiled widely as I continued.
“But it’s obvious she cares about you, and clearly you about her, so that’s good, right.”
We both blew out a breath at the same time.
“Patience,” Saera said.
“Patience,” I echoed as I turned to the door.
I edged the panel hiding Sulos’s escape route open and let my heads-up scan the room beyond. As it signaled clear, I gave Reece and the others a thumbs-up. Reece returned the gesture, and I eased the panel further open so Saera and I could fit through the opening. Holding my weapon at the ready, I moved ahead of her. My suit might have been shredded at the back, but the front would still do perfectly fine when it came to holding off an energy blast.
It took about two steps inside the room to see our plan wouldn’t exactly go as planned. The place sat empty and dark. At first glance, it appeared just as it had the first time we had stepped inside. Sulos’s body and that of the enforcer had been removed, leaving only a few dark stains of blood. The problem was that the area where Sulos’s desk stood had suffered a direct hit from the blast. Charred remnants of the shattered desk were left behind along with the almost unidentifiable remains of his access terminal.
“This is going to be a problem,” Kyran said.
Stunned, I glanced over the room and then at Saera. She shrugged, and I shook my head. If we wanted to access the feeds to broadcast our data packet, then we needed a terminal to create an uplink. Sulos’s access terminal in combination with my heads-up would have provided Kyran the tools he needed. Now that Sulos’s terminal had been destroyed, we had lost our means to connect with the feed.
“Reece,” I said into the coms, keeping my voice low, “this might take longer than we thought.”
“What’s the problem?” he asked. I threw an exasperated hand in the air, indicating the room, and gave Saera a look, ordering her to explain.
She scowled as she said, “How is this my fault?”
“It’s hardly mine, considering the fact I was the unconscious one.”
Footfalls sounded inside the narrow corridor, and a second later Reece’s head popped up in the door opening.
“Oh shit,” he said, “that had slipped my mind.”
“Slipped your mind,” Harp said, startling the three of us.
“Well, it’s not like you couldn’t have known,” Reece said in defense. “I thought Kyran had covered the HUD data?”
“I did, but it never showed the area where the desk stood,” Kyran piped in, sounding offended.
The bickering over the coms took on a life of its own, and I wondered if those previous missions—which, at this point, I felt glad that I couldn’t remember them—had been this crazy. Harp tried to silence the chatter, and it worked on Kyran, but from Reece’s expression, I could tell he enjoyed this too much. He kept at it with Saera, who said, “I can’t believe you let us go out on this meager intel.” Addressing Harp, she was pouring fuel onto the fire. Even Riffy added his opinion over the coms.
“I don’t think you can lay this all on us,” he said.
“Guys, can’t we just agree that you all screwed up,” I said in a raised whisper.
Reece glared at me as if he couldn’t believe what I had just said.
“Oh, what? And leave you off the hook?” he said, appalled.
“Unconscious,” I offered again.
“No,” he said, “that doesn’t count.” Despondent, I raised my arms, finding this entire conversation unreal. Reece grinned and shot Saera a mischievous smirk. No one seemed to care that we were standing inside the highly secured office of a man we’d just killed and that everyone inside this building was probably looking for us.
“I’ve found a secondary workstation from where we can access the system and upload the files.” Tyrel’s timid voice sounded foreign to me as it entered my ear. Reece’s face turned serious as he asked, “Do we need any additional changes to the plan?”
“No, we’re good,” Tyrel said. “It is going to take longer, though. The terminal is located in Sulos’s private lab a few floors down.”
“Great. Thanks, Ty,” Reece said, and the others followed suit. I just stood there, glaring like an idiot.
“Tyrel works best in a loud environment,” Saera said.
“And we live to serve,” Reece added.
“So, Saera and I need to go down a couple of floors, find the terminal that Kyran can use to broadcast the intel, and then get back up here,” I said, but I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be as easy as it sounded.
“Ty,” Saera said and continued after the young woman replied, “can you see if you can find another way down to the Hymag platform in case we need it.”
“Already on it,” Tyrel said as I heard her fingers tapping in a rapid pace.
“It looks like we have everything under control,” Reece said. “Now get out of here; me and the kids have a Hymag platform to clear.” Reece threw us one of his half-assed smiles and then disappeared into the narrow hallway, sliding the door shut behind him.
The information concerning the location of the secondary workstation slid across my screen.
“You guys are crazy,” I said as Saera walked past me and headed for the door.
“No more than you,” she replied.
I paused at the door, taking in the information that seemed to be coming from Kyran again. While Tyrel had searched for the secondary workstation, Kyran had breached security and determined that this floor had been abandoned after the explosion. Enforcers were sweeping the tower floor by floor going down, and they had now reached number twenty-five. This was the floor where Sulos had held up while he had waited for information from the technicians staffing the lab.
Two floors down from us, Sulos’s private lab was located, and that was where we needed to go. So, in theory, Tyrel should be right. If the remaining enforcers had joined the search, then the two floors below us should be clear for us to move around.
“What was that all about?” I asked, walking at Saera’s side as we moved through the by now familiar hallways with their pallets of soft greens and blues. The thick carpet under our feet muffled the thread of our boots, and we moved almost soundlessly.
“Tension killer,” she said. I raised an eyebrow, turning to her, but then realized she wouldn’t be able to see with the heads-up over my face.
“Tension what?” I asked.
“Reece gets into nervous, usually inappropriate, humor, while Kelle goes silent. Riffy is, well, Riffy, and Tyrel likes noise while she needs to work under pressure.”
“I see,” I replied and pondered over it for a second before I asked the question. “So what is your thing?”
Saera barely shifted her head to glance at me, but her smile was evident.
“I talk,” she said, “about anything and everything.”
“Like you did climbing the building?”
“Yep.”
We turned another corner and found the stairwell we needed in order to take the final floors down. At the door, I paused, wondering if I should ask the question on my mind, because Saera hadn’t been the most forthcoming about answering my questions—well, at least not about the things I really wanted to know. I knew she wanted me to find out things on my own, but that could take ages.
“What was my thing?” I asked.
Saera shook her head in disbelief, and I reached for the door handles, assuming she wasn’t going to answer when she said, “Isn’t it obvious.”
I turned to her, only able to guess at what she meant.
“You ask the questions.” When I didn’t reply, she added, “Your nerves calm from hearing me talk, and to keep me talking you ask the questions.”
On a weird level, that made sense. It added to the explanation of why the group was so fierce against changing who was going with whom. There was so much I still needed to learn.
“I probably lack the experience due to memory lapses, but doesn’t this seem too easy to you?” I suggested in a hushed voice. The wary look in Saera’s eyes told me I wasn’t far off.
“Systems indicate all is clear,” Kyran said over the coms. I eased the door open onto a hallway that had more in common with what I had seen in the hospital than the ones a few floors up, with their cozy carpet and decorations adorning the spaces.
“That’s what you said the last time,” Saera reminded him.
“That was different,” he countered. “Sulos’s hideout didn’t register on any of the systems.”
“Neither did the enforcer waiting for us outside the office,” I added as I took a cautious step into the hallway. The white floors and walls were spotless. My heads-up didn’t register a single fiber, hair, or any other DNA-related material. It was as if no one had ever set foot in the place.
I took another step and paused, half expecting an alarm to go off, even though our trek through the bowels of this building had gone without incident so far. A couple of staircases and hallways had led us to the other side of the tall tower. The fact that we hadn’t encountered any enforcers or regular officers hadn’t eased my mind. In fact, it made the knot that had formed in my stomach tighten further.
“This doesn’t look like a lab,” Saera said as she stepped out from behind me and glanced around. “It’s just an empty hallway.”
“This should be it,” Kyran said. His voice sounded thoughtful, which felt a bit unsettling.
“I don’t like the sound of that,” I muttered.
With less caution than I would have liked, Saera strode forward.
A red light blinked on my heads-up, and I opened my mouth to warn her, “Watch it, there are—”
She yelped as one of the white walls shifted, and its smooth surface shimmered. It might have been a trick of the eye, but it looked like a ripple on a body of water after a stone had been tossed into it. As the wave-like motion ceased, it revealed a six-foot-wide window protected by an energy barrier. Saera dropped to her knees at the sight of the transparent surface. She glared at me as I ignored her and stepped closer to see inside the room behind the newly formed window.
“You were saying,” Saera said as she got to her feet.
“I wanted to warn you that the walls were energy barriers,” I replied.
“And!”
“And that they are one way.”
“Right,” Saera muttered.
Through the window, we could see a small room of about ten square feet in size. It seemed the hallway connected to a bunch of smaller labs. Someone, or perhaps more accurate something that used to be a human being, lay in the middle of the otherwise empty room. Saera gasped, and I had to swallow hard.
With the heads-up, I could see every detail of the mutilated body. Skin bulged in places where it shouldn’t, as if broken bones were trying to break free from the flesh. But these bones weren’t broken. Joints seemed to have been reinforced and looked like…well…mine. The curves of the man’s body resembled mine as I wore the exoskeleton suit, except he wore his suit on the inside.
“They must have used a bioprinter to create…” Saera started to say, but she was unable to finish her sentence. For a moment, I wondered if I should finish the sentence for her, but by saying what? I had no idea what ArtRep was trying to do here. Maybe they wanted better enforcers, or they needed advanced people at their new-world facility. Who knew? All
I knew was that this man had suffered and would probably continue to suffer for whatever it was they wanted him to become.
“Ladies,” Kyran said in a whisper. He could see the man as well as us through the feed from my heads-up but had chosen not to comment on it. Instead, he had sent the information indicating where that secondary workstation was from where we could upload our broadcast. My heads-up signaled a warning, indicating a door at the end of the hall. It flashed bright green on my visor’s screen, and I nudged Saera.
Windows popped up along the wall every seven or eight feet and seemed to be triggered by our movement. I scanned the room for bionic or heat sensors but came up empty. Something was causing these barriers to reveal themselves.
“No alarm bells have gone off,” Kyran said.
“That doesn’t mean they haven’t detected us,” I replied. The feeling of unease that came with the fear of being detected simmered in the back of my mind as we moved further down the hall.
Each room displayed a different disturbing scene. In one we saw a teen, maybe twelve or thirteen years old. I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or girl. They had him or her hooked up to a computer bank, and wires ran in and out of that young person’s body. I stared into lifeless eyes that made me hopeful that this child wasn’t aware of what was happening.
A cold shiver ran down my spine, and I felt like tearing through the wall, but I wouldn’t be able to help these people like that. We needed to finish our mission. Ahead of me, Saera had willed her gaze to the floor with more success than I had. I couldn’t stop myself from glancing through every window that opened, but I managed to keep walking.
A tinge of relief settled inside me as we reached the door flashing green. One more window to go. I took in a breath and shifted my eyes in its direction. What I saw in there stopped me cold. A man lay inside a cylindrical contraption with his ankles and wrists bound. His mouth mimicked what I could only describe as a scream, and instead of hearing him, I could feel his pain. His eyes were open wide, and tears slid down his temple while robotic arms moved over his body adding layer upon layer of muscle and skin tissues.
